Ethiopia - Tariku Kare Bombe | Washed

About the Coffee

Tariku Kare's path to washing station ownership started at age 15, sorting cherry for a local cooperative in his hometown of Bombe, Ethiopia. He worked his way up through the ranks, eventually managing a station opened by an outside investor in Nensebo. When that owner went bankrupt, Tariku and 17 colleagues pooled resources and opened a new washing station together. He later opened a mill in Arsi to supply the international market, and once that operation was stable, returned to Bombe to build another station.

The Bombe washing station sits in Nensebo woreda in the SNNPR (Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples) region, drawing cherry from 500 registered smallholder outgrowers farming at elevations between 2,000 and 2,200 meters. Average farm size in Nensebo is around two hectares. Nensebo is a newer coffee-growing area, and the farms are planted with a mix of local varieties, primarily 74158, 74110, and 74112, alongside wild varietals from the forests nearby.

At each of his stations, Tariku pays above local market prices for ripe red cherry. That premium is designed to give farmers a direct incentive to bring their best fruit to his stations each year rather than selling elsewhere. The washed process (where the fruit is removed from the seed before drying) is used here to highlight the clean, bright character of coffee grown at these elevations.