Coffee in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is where coffee comes from. Arabica is native to its highlands and still grows wild in the forests of the south-west, and Kew researchers say Ethiopian arabica has far more genetic diversity than that of any other producing country. Today Ethiopia grows about 12 million bags a year, all arabica, from millions of smallholders, and unlike most producers it drinks a large share itself, in the daily buna ceremony. Its regional coffees, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harar and more, are some of the most sought-after in the world. Here’s how much, where, when, what farmers earn, and how the trade works.

The short version

• The home of arabica, still growing wild in the Kaffa forests.
• About 12 million bags a year, all arabica: Africa’s biggest crop.
• Smallholders: 5.9 million farmers, mostly on less than half a hectare.
• Main harvest October to December.
• A huge home market: 5 million bags a year, through the buna ceremony.
• Trademarked names: Harrar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe.

How much coffee does Ethiopia grow?

USDA’s figures for Ethiopia’s coffee year, which runs from October to September, in 60 kg bags:

Coffee year	Production	Area harvested	Exports	Drunk at home
2024/25	11.46 million	760,000 ha	7.43 million	4.0 million
2025/26 (estimate)	11.56 million	790,000 ha	6.97 million	4.5 million
2026/27 (forecast)	12.1 million	800,000 ha	7.13 million	5.0 million

Source: USDA, May 2026.

Production has nearly tripled in twenty years, from 4.5 million bags in 2005/06. USDA credits new planting, better farming and a national campaign to stump old trees: cutting them back so they regrow. About 70% of Ethiopia’s coffee trees are old, some over a century, and by 2025/26 stumped trees covered 15% of the harvested area. Yields are still under a tonne a hectare, against about 2.8 tonnes for the new hybrid varieties the national research institute is handing out.

The government also wants big farms: it has set aside 100,000 hectares for private commercial coffee, citing Brazil as a model, against 143,000 hectares of commercial farms today. Some in the trade worry that machine farming could lose Ethiopia’s distinctive flavours.

Some counts differ:

Figure	Claim	Source
Farmers	5.9 million	Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority, via USDA
Farmers	Over 4 million small-scale farmers	Wikipedia
Coffee land	790,000 ha harvested in 2025/26	USDA
Coffee land	About 4,000 km² (400,000 ha), size uncertain	Wikipedia

Where is coffee grown in Ethiopia?

Mostly in the south and west. The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority’s figures, averaged over the last three years:

Region	Share of the national crop
Oromia	59.5%
South West Ethiopia, which includes Kaffa	13.7%
Sidama	12.9%
South Ethiopia	7.1%

Source: ECTA, via USDA; Kaffa’s region from Wikipedia. Together these four regions grow about 93% of the crop.

The famous names cut across these regions. Ethiopia markets coffee from Harar, Yirgacheffe, Limu, Jimma and Kaffa separately under their own names, Wikipedia says. Researchers at Kew Gardens, who mapped the coffee lands for their Coffee Atlas of Ethiopia, divided the country into five coffee zones and 16 coffee areas, and found many flavours “hardly known outside Ethiopia”.

Coffee	Where	Known for	Source
Sidamo and Yirgacheffe	The south	Berries, citrus and lemon, bright acidity; 1,500–2,200 m	Wikipedia
Harar	The eastern highlands	Fruity and winey, with a mocha flavour; dry-processed by hand	Wikipedia
Guji	The south, in Oromia	Peach, bergamot and jasmine (washed); blueberry and chocolate (natural)	Coffee Review
Jimma and Limu	The south-west, in Oromia	Clean and floral; apricot, citrus, cocoa nib	Coffee Review
Kaffa	The south-west forests	Wild forest coffee at 1,400–2,100 m	Wikipedia
Bench Maji (Genika, Guraferda)	The south-west	Spice, wine or chocolate, floral aroma	Wikipedia
West Arsi	The south, in Oromia	Peach, bergamot, jasmine (washed); strawberry, honey (natural)	Coffee Review

When is coffee harvested in Ethiopia?

The main harvest runs from October to December, USDA says. The coffee is then processed and graded, so exports are lowest in December and January and peak from May to July. In 2025/26, late rains in the south delayed the harvest by up to three weeks.

How is Ethiopian coffee grown and processed?

By hand, mostly. Wikipedia sorts Ethiopia’s coffee into forest coffee, from wild trees, mostly in the south-west; garden coffee, from trees planted around homesteads; and plantation coffee, from larger farms. Nearly all the work, from cultivation to drying, is still done by hand.

It is processed in two main ways: washed, at washing stations, and natural, dried whole in the sun. In 2025/26 the balance shifted towards naturals, USDA reports: with cherry prices at records, many farmers dried their own coffee at home rather than sell cherries to washing stations, and washed coffee became scarce.

How much are Ethiopian coffee farmers paid?

More than ever, in birr. At the start of the 2025/26 harvest, cherry prices tripled in some areas and quadrupled in others, USDA reports. Co-operatives in Yirgacheffe paid up to 220–250 birr (about US$1.42–1.62) a kilo of red cherry in December 2025, nearly four times the previous season. Costs rose too: picking wages in Sidama doubled from 5 to 10 birr a kilo, fuel rose by over 30%, and exporters’ costs per container by 60%.

Where does Ethiopian coffee go?

In 2024/25 Ethiopia exported 7.43 million bags worth US$2.89 billion, almost all as green coffee. Coffee earns about a third of the country’s export revenue, USDA says. The biggest buyers were Saudi Arabia (15.9%), Germany (15.2%), China (9.0%), Belgium (8.8%) and the United States (8.3%). China’s rise is the story: 670,000 bags in 2024/25, up 264%, from 17th place a decade earlier.

Coffee for export has to meet strict grades; coffee that fails goes to the domestic market, under the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority’s two-tier system. Since 2017, reforms to the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, set up in 2008, have let buyers trace lots back to the washing station again, and more specialty coffee now sells directly, Wikipedia says.

Ethiopia’s coffee trademarks

Ethiopia chose trademarks rather than geographical indications to protect its best-known names. WIPO tells the story: in 2004, finding that only 5–10% of the retail price of its coffee came back to Ethiopia, the government launched a trademarking and licensing initiative for Harrar (Harar), Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, offering royalty-free licences to roasters who promoted them.

When	What happened	Source
2005–2007	Trademark applications filed in 34 countries; 28 granted by mid-2007, including Canada, the EU and Japan	WIPO Magazine
October 2005	The US Patent and Trademark Office refuses Harrar; it approves Yirgacheffe	WIPO Magazine
August 2006	The USPTO refuses Sidamo, after the US National Coffee Association objects	WIPO Magazine; Wikipedia
October 2006	Oxfam accuses Starbucks of asking the NCA to block the applications	Wikipedia
20 June 2007	Ethiopia and Starbucks announce a distribution, marketing and licensing agreement	Wikipedia

How did coffee begin in Ethiopia?

In the forest. Arabica is native to the highlands of southern Ethiopia, South Sudan and northern Kenya, Wikipedia says, and the Kaffa forests of the south-west, a biosphere reserve since 2010, are considered its birthplace, the World Bank says. The famous story of Kaldi, a 9th-century goat herder whose goats grew lively after eating coffee berries, is a legend: it first appeared in writing in 1671. Coffee drinking took hold first in Yemen, across the Red Sea; Ethiopian Christians avoided coffee, seeing it as a Muslim drink, until the 19th century. Under the Marxist military government, from 1974 to 1991, coffee farms were collectivised and had to sell to the state; co-operatives returned after 1991.

How do Ethiopians drink their coffee?

Through the jebena buna ceremony: green beans roasted in a pan, ground by hand and boiled in a clay jebena, then poured into small cups over three rounds. USDA describes the ceremony as central to daily life in towns and villages alike, and it sustains a huge home market of about 2 kg per person a year. Ethiopians also fry whole beans in butter as buna qalaa and boil coffee leaves as kuti. In Addis Ababa, a fast-growing café culture, baristas and local roasters now sit alongside the street vendors.

Ethiopian coffee and other origins

• Coffee in Colombia: the world’s great washed arabica, from the Andes.
• Jebena buna: the Ethiopian coffee ceremony, step by step.
• The atlas: Ethiopia’s growing area on the map.