Kercha Rare.

Site Description

Kercha District is one of the Districts in Weset Guji Zone of Oromia regions. The District is located at about 470KM South of Addis Ababa and 40 km West of the zonal Capital Bule Hora. Kercha is bounded by SNNPR (Gedeb Woreda) in the North, Melka Soda in the South, Birbirsa Kojowa for the East and Bule Hora District from the West. Kercha is located at higher altitude within a range of 1900-2200 asl. The annual rainfall is 1600-1800mm with good distribution throughout the Year. The soil type is a mineral rich verti sol. The eastern parts of the district is covered with forest. The main crops grown & consumed are enset & maize. Kercha is labelled as food self-sufficient agricultural zone and a major fine coffee producing area. Thus; we adopted the name 'Kerchanshe' after Kercha District.

Coffee Type

The type of coffee is an indigenous arabica heirloom variety, typical guji Coffee with medium shaped green beans. The coffee is characterized by medium body, medium to sharp pointed acidity, with flavors of blueberry, sweet lemon, papaya, Spicy Notes like Cardamom, Clove, Rue, Chocolate notes and Long after taste like Lemon grass.

Production

Similar to other Guji Coffee Growing Districts farmers in Kercha grow their coffee in a complex agroforestry system with legume trees (like millettia ferrugnea, albzia spp) as main canopy trees. There are 1556 small scale farmers who exclusively supply their product to Kerchanshe trading company. The farmers are located Gurachu,Banko Baya and Banko Michicha Kebeles Kebeles. The flowering season is in March -April and the harvest period is October- January

Processing Unit

Our Company owns 1 wet mill and 3 dry mills (1 at Guracho Site, 1 at Baya site and 1 At Kercha Town). Gurachu site is our main station and found along the Sharu river course. The sites were established in 2010. The processing units have the combined capacity of processing 5,000,000 kg red cherries annually.

Sustainability Certification

Our Kercha site has been certified with organic certifications including EU Regulation, NOP Final Rule and Organic Jas.

Method of Natural and Washed Coffee Processing

Natural Processing

Kercha processing site has own dry mill and has a capacity to produce per 15 Bags/hour. Cherries are hand-sorted from unripe and overripe cherries before they go into floatation tanks, where the cherries are covered with water. Any cherries that float are removed. Whole, ripe cherries are then dried in the sunshine on raised African drying beds, which are laid out on hessian cloths for about 15-18 days depending on the weather conditions. The cherries are covered with plastic or shade nets during the midday heat and at night.

The natural process means that the beans are left to dry in the cherry after it is picked. This is a tricky process to do well, as the beans need to be turned over for a consistent and even drying. If some cherries are not dried it will give a moldy flavour to the cup as well as over fermented flavours. But when it is done well, it gives a sweet cup and a bigger body. In the case of kercha the natural process is what enhances the blueberry mousse character in the coffee.

Washed Processing

Kercha processing site has its own wet mill and has a capacity to produce 30Bags/hour.

Each day, red cherry collected from farmers are carefully hand-picked coffee cherries are delivered to the kercha wet mill and are hand-sorted prior to processing to remove unripe, overripe, or damaged fruit, in order to enhance the quality and sweetness of the cup.The coffee cherries are then pulped to remove the fruit and skin, and then graded by weight; heavier beans are superior quality and deliver a sweeter cup. After grading, the parchment-covered coffee is fermented in tanks of clean water for 36-72 hours to remove the mucilage (sticky covering) by allowing it to ferment and detach from the coffee. The coffee is then re-washed and graded again by density in washing channels and soaked in clean water. Then to it passes through three drying stages. Skin drying for 3 hours, slow drying for 3 days under plastic shade and final drying for 10-15 days on African drying beds based Environmental condition. Then dried coffee is carefully hand-sorted, and any defects are removed. It is also turned regularly to ensure that it dries evenly and consistently. At midday, the coffee is covered to protect it from full sun.It is also covered overnight to prevent damage from morning dew. Once the coffee is dry it is rested in parchment until it is ready for export.