Chelbesa Danche – Ethiopia

Danche is a washing station located in Chelbesa, Gedo. They buy cherries from 313 farmers who produce good yields thanks to fertile soil and good farming methods. This washing station has organic certification.

Cherries are collected manually and hand-sorted later. The cherries are pulped by a traditional Agaarde Discpulper. Skin and fruit pulp are removed before the machine grades the parchment in water as 1st or 2nd quality, determined by density. Coffees are washed in channels and graded in water by density. The 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.

SNAP COFFEE supports the community of smallholders living near the washing station through partnerships with washing station owners. The washing stations build schools and SNAP COFFEE provides computers and other facilities. SNAP COFFEE is also constructing roads to less accessible farming areas. The aim is to complete the construction of the road in March/April 2020. SNAP COFFEE is also planning to build health clinics in the future to improve access to healthcare for farmers in the washing station areas.