The Layio washing station was founded in 2018, and it is located in Guji (Uraga). The station sits on a small hill at an altitude of 1900 – 2000 masl with good sunlight exposure and cold winds hitting the slope. The average farm size where these coffees are produced is 0.5 – 2 hectares, with good, semi-forest and garden type of vegetation. There are approximately 1800 – 2400 trees planted per hectare, with each tree estimated to produce around 3 kg of cherry.
Processing:
Cherries are collected manually and hand sorted later. The cherries are pulped by a traditional Agaarde Discpulper. The skin and fruit pulp are removed before the machine grades the parchment in water. These cherries are sorted as 1st or 2nd grade, depending on their density.
Pulping and pre-grading:
These coffees are wet-fermented for 24 to 72 hours, depending on the weather.
Washing and grading in channels:
The coffees are washed in channels, and graded in water by density. The ones with lower density (lower quality) will float and are removed, leaving only the denser, and therefore higher quality beans, which are separated as higher grade lots.
Soaked under clean water:
After fermentation, soaking takes place for 6 hours.
Drying and hand sorting:
The coffee is then piled up in layers which are 2 cm in height. It is then dried over a 13-day period, followed by hand sorting for 2-4 hours.
Warehousing:
After drying, the coffees are packed in jute bags and stored in the local warehouse onsite, separated by process and grade. Lot sizes can vary from 100 – 300 bags. This process helps condition the coffee and achieve a more uniform humidity. They will normally be stored 1-2 months before they are moved. In some cases, the parchment is hand-sorted in the warehouse.
Logistics:
After the harvest season is over, the coffees are moved to warehouses and dry mills in Addis. Trucking is expensive in Ethiopia. Coffee trucks must pass a local ECX checkpoint where their contents are graded and registered as exportable products, before continuing to Addis Ababa.
Dry milling:
The coffee will sit in parchment in a warehouse in Addis. This is when our team will go to the warehouse and collect the samples from the specific stock lots. It remains in parchment until it is contracted and the destination for shipment is confirmed.
Tropiq Lab
The team on the ground in Addis personally collects samples, which Tropiq cups, grades, and measures for humidity and water activity. When a specific lot is selected for purchase, they register the contract with a shipping destination and approve it for milling and shipment. The Tropiq team is present at the dry mill during processing, grading and bagging, and they immediately take a PSS sample for approval.
Container stuffing and transport
The containers are generally stuffed in Addis at the dry mills and moved to the port and straight onto a vessel in Djibouti. This way, the Tropiq team reduces the risk of delays or mistakes at the port that can frequently happen when moving coffee by truck for stuffing in Djibouti.
