Shop Basha Bekele in Los Angeles, CA

We visited Basha’s Bombe drying station on our second day in Bensa this past December. Basha’s father, a respected community member who, together with Basha, built a church at their Bombe site, was once the manager of a local cooperative that supplied coffee to the Sidama Union. Before the government allowed smallholders to obtain export licenses, both he and his father sold their coffee cherries to the cooperative. Now, with his own export license, Basha cultivates coffee (primarily the 74158 variety, known locally as “Walega”) on 12 hectares of semi-forested land. He also operates collection sites in Bombe, Shantawane, and Kokose, sourcing cherries from producers farming as high as 2,300 masl. Despite high cherry prices this year, Basha upheld a practice we didn’t see everywhere, delivering a second payment to the 126 producers he purchased from once the coffee sold. Like most smallholders around Bensa, Basha exclusively produces natural (dry-processed) coffees, including experiments with anaerobic fermentations. All cherries are floated before being slowly dried on raised beds, with some lots finished under shade.