Ethiopia Natural 
Yirgacheff ECX Specialty G1 衣索比亞 日曬耶加ECX特選

Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)

The ECX was started in 2008 to help protect farmers from market forces that might prevent them from making a living.

Here is a general rundown of how the ECX chain works in Ethiopia:

• Farmers deliver cherry to local wet mills. Some wet mills pay a premium for better quality cherry, some do not.

• The wet mill then delivers parchment coffee to a delivery station warehouse. In Yirgacheffe, this delivery station is in Dila.

• Coffees are labeled with a region and then are graded based both on physical qualities as well as cup quality. Higher quality coffee fetches a higher price.

• Coffee is categorized into 81 generic grades of coffee at the ECX: Processing: Washed, Un-washed, Region: Yirgacheffe, Sidama, Limu, etc. Flavor: A (Representative of region’s cup characteristics) B (Less so), Grade: 1-9 (defect count)

• Tracibility on the coffee an exporter purchases coffee through the ECX will, at most, be labelled as “Yirgacheffe: Konga” or “Sidama: Borena.”

• Once a specific lot is purchased, it is then shipped to the buyer (typically an exporter in Ethiopia).

• Full lots come divided in 30 bag chop sub-lots (parchment). Exporters who are buying and selling many containers will cup through the sub-lots to select the top lots and build a full container from these.