COFFEE QUALITY AND ITS DETERMINANT FACTORS IN THE GEDEO ZONE OF SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

ABSTRACT: The Gedeo Zone, heartland of the globally renowned Yirgacheffe coffee, possesses exceptional agro-ecological potential for producing high-quality Arabica beans. Despite this international reputation and optimal growing conditions, a significant portion of coffee from this region fails to achieve its potential quality grade, representing a critical quality paradox that undermines farmer incomes and national export earnings. While previous research has documented general factors affecting coffee quality, there remains a lack of integrated analysis that simultaneously quantifies the effects of specific pre- and post-harvest practices while identifying the key socioeconomic and institutional determinants of quality failure at the producer level. This study therefore aimed to address this gap by evaluating how pre- and post-harvest processing techniques affect coffee quality, assessing the inherent quality of coffee in the Gedeo zone, and identifying the determinants of coffee quality among producers. The study employed a mixed-methods approach combining a cross-sectional survey of 138 coffee-producing households across four major woredas (Yirgacheffe, Kochere, Dilla Zuria, and Wenago), standardized laboratory analysis of physical and organoleptic properties following ECX protocols, and binary logit regression analysis to identify quality determinants. The findings reveal a stark quality paradox: despite the region’s optimal agro-ecology and high adoption of pre-harvest good practices (97.1% use organic fertilizer, 94.3% practice pruning), 50.5% of farmer output was graded as unacceptable quality (ECX Grade 4 or 5). Laboratory analysis confirmed the significant superiority of washed processing, with washed coffee exhibiting substantially higher scores in key sensory attributes including acidity (8.5 ± 0.2 vs. 5.8 ± 0.3, p<0.001) and flavor (8.8 ± 0.1 vs. 6.5 ± 0.4, p<0.001). Geographic analysis revealed significant intra-zonal variability, with Yirgacheffe achieving the highest premium-grade proportion (32.5%) and lowest low-grade proportion (17.4%), while Wonago exhibited the lowest premium-grade share (20.1%) and highest low-grade proportion (33.4%). The binary logit model identified that drying coffee on bare ground (79% of farmers) was the most detrimental factor, substantially increasing the probability of poor quality. Conversely, selective picking, access to training, access to credit, and cooperative membership emerged as the most significant factors reducing the likelihood of producing unacceptable coffee. The study makes both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, it advances Lancaster’s consumer theory by demonstrating how institutional and socioeconomic factors operate through management practices to determine quality outcomes, addressing a notable gap in the literature concerning integrated quality determinant analysis. Practically, the findings provide actionable intelligence for critical stakeholders: for farmers and cooperatives, they validate cooperative membership as a key quality-enabler and pinpoint drying on bare ground as the most detrimental practice; for development agencies and government bodies including the Ministry of Agriculture and ECX, the evidence justifies redirecting extension services toward promoting affordable raised-bed drying technologies and strengthening cooperative infrastructure; for researchers, the integrated application of sensory analysis and econometric modeling provides a replicable framework for quality determinant studies in other Ethiopian coffee regions. The study concludes that the primary constraints to coffee quality in Gedeo are not pre-harvest agronomic practices, but rather critical post-harvest handling deficiencies, particularly drying on bare ground, compounded by inadequate institutional support. To unlock the region’s full economic potential, interventions must prioritize promoting affordable raised-bed drying technologies made from local materials, strengthening cooperatives, refocusing agricultural training on practical post-harvest management, and ensuring price incentives that reward quality improvement.