The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Lecture - Ethiopian Coffee Cultivation: from Kaldi to Climate Change
Dr Aaron Davis
Wednesday 2nd July 2014
7:00pm, Room G3, Main Building, SOAS, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG - Public lecture (all welcome)
Ethiopia is the birth place of Arabica coffee. Distributed around the world from the sixteenth century onwards, coffee plants from Ethiopia are the source of a multi-billion dollar industry. Within the country coffee is a key component of Ethiopian culture and commerce, supporting livelihoods for millions of farming families. In an era of rapid climate and commercial change, the Ethiopian coffee industry faces numerous challenges and perhaps some unique opportunities. In this talk Dr Davis, Head of Coffee Research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, will provide an overview of coffee culture and production, and the ways in which it might be possible to provide resilience for Ethiopia's coffee economy.