Konga Wete Webanchi is a washing station where coffee production and community development are closely connected. Located beside a school near the town of Wete, the station works alongside Primrose and Project Origin to support teachers and provide resources for local children.

The relationship between the washing station and the surrounding community is an important part of its story, with investment in education sitting alongside a continued focus on producing high-quality specialty coffee.

Primrose is owned by husband-and-wife team Meseret and Abraham. When choosing a location for the washing station, access to electricity was one of the key factors behind their decision. Reliable power can be difficult to secure in rural parts of Ethiopia, so the site offered a valuable practical advantage.

Electricity allows processing to continue beyond daylight hours, giving the team greater flexibility during harvest and helping the station operate more efficiently than many facilities in the surrounding area.

Process

Processing Details

o Coffees grow in small farmers backyards, known as “garden coffee”

o Hand sorting of only ripe, red cherries at 20-22º Brix for 90+ ripeness rate for this lot

o Cherries are placed inside sealed tanks and flushed with N2

o Controlled yeast activity, temperature and humidity of tanks

o Moderate anaerobic fermentation time at controlled temperatures

o Cherries dried on drying beds in thick stacks to slow drying time and bring thick texture

o Drying takes typically 25-30 days to reduce moisture content to 10-12%

o Dried beans are then stored in the dried cherry pod for protection and to maximise fruit flavours until milling and export preparation where further hand sorting and colour sorting is conducted to improve overall quality

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