Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Worka

The Worka Cooperative in Worka operates the Halo Fafate Washing Station in Yirgacheffe, which serves around 900 smallholder farmers in the area. Coffee is typically grown on small garden-size plots and is used to supplement a family's income in addition to being grown for personal use. At this washing station, coffee is delivered in cherry form by producers, and it will be dried on raised beds. Coffees are then separated into "lots" of 150 bags of parchment coffee.
There are several ways coffee is prepared for market in Ethiopia; Large estates are privately owned and operated by hired labor. The coffee is often picked, processed, and milled on the property.
On the other end of the spectrum, “garden coffee” is brought by a farmer in cherry form to the closest or most convenient washing station, where it is sold and blended with other farmers’ lots and processed according to the desires of the washing station.
Co-op members will bring their cherry to be weighed and received at a co-op washing station, where there is more traceability to the producer level as per memberships of the co-operative.