Yabitu Koba

From one of the oldest coffee growing regions in Ethiopia, comes our Yabitu Koba. Koba is Oroma for false banana tree or Enset, a native plant that grows fruit that looks similar to a banana but is inedible. (Instead the starchy stems and roots can be fermented to make porridge and bread.) Koba is also the name of the remote town that is home to the processing center where local coffee producers drop off their ripe cherry, trekking along often treacherous roads via horse, mule, or donkey. Koba’s coffee producers intercrop with false banana trees, maize, Korch, Wanza, and Sesa for shade. Intercropping is notably much better for producing quality coffee as well as being much friendlier to the environment by providing a bird friendly environment and natural weed and pest abatement. Traditional growing practices in this region are devoid of the use of pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Coffee here is grown in highly fertile sandy loam with good water retention, meaning it is self sufficient and does not require fertilizer. Coffee is largely a way of life in this remote region that is known for producing some of the world’s best coffee.