Clifton Coffee Roasters: Yemen, Bani Ofair, Natural

Bani Ofair is a small and extremely remote community of farmers in the governorate of Dhamar, located in the central highlands of Yemen.

Being located in an active warzone and facing severe developmental challenges, Yemen is a challenging origin in which to operate, and so until recently Bani Ofair was primarily a Qat growing village with 70% of the land used for cultivation of the drug for the local market.

Our partners in Yemen, Qima coffee, intervened with quality premiums; farmer training and processing infrastructure to improve the qualities and cash outcomes for the farmers. This increased the average farmer income in the region by three-fold and led to 90% of the Qat being replaced with coffee.

We at Clifton have entered into a long term development project with the villagers at Bani Ofair, adding a large development premium onto our purchase pricing to fund the development of water reserviours and irrigation networks to decrease the costs of production and increase profit for the community.