Feature: From seed to cup, Ethiopian coffee gains popularity in China

Resumen detallado

During the 2025/26 Ethiopian fiscal year, Ethiopia exported 47,836 tonnes of coffee to China and earned 347 million dollars, up by 40 percent and 58 percent respectively year on…

ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Scattered in the misty, yet sun-drenched highlands of southwestern Ethiopia, premium organic coffee cherries are hand-picked, sun-dried, and carefully processed before they embark on a long journey to China, where a rapidly growing appetite for specialty coffee is cementing an expanding commercial bridge between the two nations.

Every morning, Alemu Haile steps into the lush expanse of Awo Coffee's 200-hectare plantation in the Gimbo District of the southwest region of Ethiopia to oversee coffee growing and processing.

"My daily routine involves coordinating the hand-picking of coffee cherries, ensuring that workers carefully select only the vibrant red cherries at the absolute peak of their ripeness," Haile told Xinhua in a recent interview. He emphasized that balancing the proper amount of sunlight for the coffee trees is critical to ensure the cherries ripen uniformly during the harvest season, which normally falls in October.

Once harvested, the cherries move to post-processing under Haile's supervision, where trained personnel perform rigorous manual sorting to filter out immature, insect-damaged and deformed beans. To guarantee export standards, the farm also deploys a water flotation technique that instantly separates and discards any inherently inferior beans, ensuring only top-tier selections advance to the long, raised drying beds.

The sun-drying and processing phase, which often lasts for three weeks, is also considered a "very critical stage," mainly because coffee beans readily absorb tastes and aromas from their surroundings. To ensure quality, Haile excercises maximum caution to protect the sensitive beans from dust, soil, or any other external exposure.

Much of this meticulously processed high-quality coffee is subsequently shipped to China by Awo Coffee, one of Ethiopia's fast-growing coffee processors and exporters.

Named after the Amharic word for "Yes," Awo Coffee began its exports to China about 12 years ago right…

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