Ethiopia

Coffee is ancient in Ethiopia but coffee farming is not. If the story of Kaldi and his goats were true, he could have lived in the region in the 8th or 9th Century. By the end of the 9th Century, some guess, coffee was actively being cultivated in Ethiopia, but as food, not for preparing a beverage. Centuries later, when coffee became an export for Ethiopia, it was the result of gathering more than agricultural practices. A hundred years ago, plantations, mostly in Harar, were still the exception, while “Kaffa” coffee from the southwest was still harvested wild.