The fourth addition to Stumptown’s Southwestern Ethiopian coffees comes 500 km from Addis Ababa on the main road into the Illubabor zone. Sota Cooperative is located in the hilly plains outside the small village of Abello Sota within the Buno Bedele district. The lush jungle of the Buno-Yaya-Geba natural forests, which was recently registered by UNESCO as a heritage site and future biosphere reserve, surrounds the village. This region has a reputation for excellent coffee, spice, and honey production. For generations, traditional heirloom coffee varietals were culled and removed from these forests. To maintain their production, the local people needed to consciously and carefully manage their forest resources.
Sota Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative was formed in 2000 and renewed in 2002, with the objective of providing social and economical services to its 143 members. For years, all the coffee produced was jenfel (sun dried) and sold to the local market for extremely low prices which caused many members to need to find alternative incomes and crops. In 2010, with assistance from the nonprofit TechnoServe, Sota purchased a depulper and constructed a wet processing facility. In their first harvest, the wet processed coffee sold for 8 birr per kg, a much higher price than the sun dried fetched at 3 birr per kg. This enabled all coop members to fully repay their loans. The coop has roads that are accessible in all conditions, a rarity in this region. They recently installed a water pump for wet processing, sourced from a perennial river.
With a tradition of diversity in farming, coop members grow other crops including teff, maize, barley, beans, and sorghum as well as raising goats, sheep, oxen, and bees. Local agronomy techniques include land preparation to counteract soil erosion, using shade trees, agro foresting (intercropping with fruit trees and spices) and extensive mulching. No insecticides or pesticides are used in the coffee growing areas around Sota. Coop members cultivate their coffee on small plots which average .25 hectares. They pick their own cherry then deliver it to the coop. The ripe coffee cherry is processed with a Penagos 500 depulping machine. The parchment is soaked overnight, washed and then sun dried on raised beds. In 2010, Sota produced 200 bags of high quality washed Arabica coffee.