Yemen’s coffee farmers bid to win over baristas to their heritage beans
The beans that have grown across Yemen’s harsh mountain landscapes for more than 600 years have been largely overlooked by modern coffee connoisseurs.
But last month, a group of farmers in ceremonial dress, replete with daggers in their belts, visited a London coffee-roasting firm, bent on restoring Yemen’s status as the birthplace of good coffee.
The farmers brought 28 samples for tasting and, within days, had sold their beans to buyers from Europe, Australia, the Middle East and east Asia.
London’s inaugural National Yemen Coffee Auction was designed to connect the growers of Yemeni’s western mountains directly to traders, rather than selling through a network of exporters that carve off profits.
“The auction was really good. It was the first for Yemen and a great opportunity for the farmers,” says Ahmed al-Murri, whose coffee sold for $42 (£37) a pound. “The customers have truly sampled our coffee and closed the gap between us and them.”
A former travel agent who returned to Haraaz when war broke out in 2014, Murri enthusiastically took on his father’s coffee plants and started a business.
“I went back to the village and saw that coffee was something my father and grandfather had done, but it had been forgotten. We decided to start to process speciality coffee,” he says. “The coffee of Yemen was not well known to the world, it did not have a good reputation, but we hope this new market will improve this.”
Modern coffee cultivation is said to have begun in Yemen in about the 15th century, with trade passing through the port of Mocha. But by 2020, it ranked 61st in coffee exports, selling $21m of beans compared with Brazil’s $5bn.
Yemeni-American coffee entrepreneur, Mokhtar Alkhanshali, who has worked in the coffee industry
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