The partnership bringing Yemen’s prized specialty coffees to new audiences

The coffee-growing region of Buraa, home to one of Yemen’s most significant ports | Photo credit: Alliance For Coffee Excellence

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Yemen produces some of the most prized coffees in the world, with the average price at the Best of Yemen 2024 auction reaching $369/kg and the top lot from Al Hayma Al Dakhiliya, Sanaa, selling for a record-breaking $1,159/ kg. Highly sought after for its earthy, fruity flavours and balanced acidity, Yemeni coffee is also among the world’s scarcest – a factor exacerbated by ongoing conflict and economic instability in the country.

However, a meeting of minds between Faris Sheibani, founder of specialty coffee exporter Qima Coffee, and Ed Parkes, co-founder of London-based specialty coffee roaster and café group, The Gentlemen Baristas, looks set to raise the profile of Yemeni coffee in the UK capital and beyond.

London’s specialty coffee community was left reeling when The Gentlemen Baristas entered administration in January 2024. However, the celebrated specialty coffee group now has a new lease of life as part of Origins 1450, the holding company behind superpremium specialty coffee importer, distributor and coffee shop, Qima Coffee.

With a first-of-its-kind fully integrated coffee roastery, encompassing the whole supply chain from farming and exports to roasting and cafés, Parkes says the tie-up is “as close to direct trade as you can get.”

The village of Aljidan in Hayma Kharijiya, Yemen | Photo credit: Alliance For Coffee Excellence

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The cradle of coffee civilisation

Born in Bradford, UK, Faris Sheibani maintains a close cultural connection with Yemen, where he fondly recalls visits to his grandparents as a child. After attaining master’s degrees in chemical engineering and manufacturing from Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge, Sheibani went on to develop energy projects in the Middle East and East Africa for British oil and gas giant, Shell.

However, when civil war broke out in Yemen in late 2014, “my moral compass was to go and do something that would support Yemen’s economy and have a positive social impact. Coffee was the vehicle of choice,” he says.

While coffea arabica was first discovered in the western regions of Ethiopia, it was in the 15th century across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen that coffee was first cultivated for consumption, with the port city of Mocha becoming a global hub for coffee commerce.
 

“Ethiopian coffee is often imported illegally into Yemen and then re-exported”
Faris Sheibani, founder, Qima Coffee

However, as European colonisers began establishing major coffee plantations in Brazil, India and Indonesia during the 17th century, Yemen’s position as the epicentre of the global coffee trade faded and today the country accounts for less than 0.5% of global coffee production.

Nevertheless, Yemeni coffee continues to captivate the specialty coffee world. Nearly all arabica can be traced back to the country’s early coffee farms and today Yemen’s dry, highly alkaline soil produces among the most prized coffees in the world.

Yemen currently produces 20,000 tons of coffee each year, according to the government’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation. However, export figures are difficult to verify due to a lack of official data and a widespread black market.

“Ethiopian coffee is often imported illegally into Yemen and then reexported as Yemeni. We’ve heard estimates from reliable sources that roughly half the coffee that is exported as Yemeni is in fact Ethiopian. So, while you might see 2,000-4,000 tons on official export figures, in reality half of those could be Ethiopian coffee,” Sheibani says. Smuggling is just one of many issues facing Yemen’s coffee industry. Irrigation, access to coffee seedlings, creaking machinery and small farm plots also pose significant challenges for Yemeni coffee farmers.

Additionally, Sheibani says 10 years of civil conflict has brought “the country to its knees”, with coffee farmers facing food shortages, poor infrastructure, a lack of access to equipment and military blockades restricting exports.

Nonetheless, Sheibani passionately believes that Yemeni coffee has the power to present an alternative narrative to mainstream media coverage about the war-torn country.

To achieve this, Qima Coffee has worked with non-profits, such as the Lavazza Foundation, to support Yemeni coffee producers with irrigation, infrastructure improvements and incentives for farm labourers.

The collaboration has also yielded Yemen’s first major coffee nursery, which has capacity for 150,000 plants, as well as a 43,000 sq ft processing centre that has so far benefited more than 1,500 smallholder coffee producers.
 

“We’re referring to it as the UK’s first fully integrated coffee roastery”
Ed Parkes, co-founder, The Gentlemen Baristas

“Coffee cultivation in Yemen is an important vehicle for post-conflict, social and economic recovery. The very roots of what we’re trying to do are not commercial – they’re driven by impact,” comments Sheibani. On average, Yemeni farmer partners working with Qima Coffee receive over 400% above the standard international market price, with these super-premium specialty coffees showcased by some of the world’s leading roasters.

Qima Coffee is currently responsible for approximately 20% of all Yemeni coffee exports by volume and 80% by value, making it Yemen’s largest exporter of specialty coffee. The business has forged a network of more than 800 specialty coffee roasters across 40 countries, including Osaka-based Tsujimoto Coffee, Berlin’s Ben Rahim and California-based Blue Bottle Coffee.

Ed Parkes cupping for The Jampot Coffee Company | Photo credit: Origins 1450

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An exclusive harvest

Having successfully developed infrastructure, trade relationships and export capabilities in Yemen, Sheibani expanded Qima’s reach to other parts of the coffee belt. The business launched in Colombia in 2020 and in Ecuador two years later – countries where Qima Coffee has worked to address similar challenges on access to post-harvest processing and exports.

In September 2022, Qima Coffee launched Qima Café in central London to showcase exclusive and rare coffees from its global network of partner farmers and roasters, with a Yemeni pour over costing up to £25 ($33) per cup.

The high price point reflects the rarity and quality of the coffee, as well as the costs of production – a large farming household in Yemen often relies on coffee for up to 50% of its annual income.

“This context necessitates high price points. For a household of 10, with half their income dependent on 500 trees, the coffee needs to be priced high for them to survive,” Sheibani says.

A new chapter for the Gentlemen Baristas

With Qima Coffee’s extensive network of producers, expertise and very own retail outlet in London, a roastery was the last piece of the puzzle for its ‘seed-to-cup’ direct-trade operating model.

In August 2024, Qima completed the picture after acquiring The Gentlemen Baristas’ state-of-the-art 12,000 sq ft coffee roastery in Stratford, east London, which is equipped with a dedicated training space, cupping room, Specialty Coffee Association (SCA)-specification school and UK Barista Championship practice area. Alongside the roastery, Qima strategically chose to retain The Gentlemen Baristas’ iconic coffee shop near Borough Market.

“We’re referring to it as the UK’s first fully integrated coffee roastery,” says Ed Parkes, who co-founded The Gentleman Baristas alongside Henry Ayers in 2014. “We now go from the work that Qima does with farmers right through to roasting and customer support.

“Where a typical value chain has up to eight intermediaries, we’ve now streamlined it to just one – boosting transparency, traceability and efficiency. Working in this way allows us to pay the farmers more and gives us the control to know that things are fair every step of the way – we are trying to improve communities at every point in the supply chain.”

A coffee processing centre in Quindio, Colombia | Photo credit: Origins 1540

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The deal also provides The Gentlemen Baristas with an opportunity to reset after eight difficult months, with a new joint vision set to re-centre the brand on its coffee roasting roots.

“We’ve managed to preserve a lot of what we’re about. We’re a lot smaller now, but ultimately, we are back at the vision we first set out 10 years ago – being the centre of communities and paying homage to the original coffee houses of London,” Parkes says.

While developing synergies with Qima Coffee, the business will remain a separate entity under the Origins 1450 umbrella. The Gentlemen Baristas’ Borough Market coffee shop will continue to trade as normal and its roastery and wholesale business is being spun off under a new brand. The Jampot Coffee Company is a nod to London’s first coffeehouse, The Jamaica Winehouse, which opened in 1652 and was affectionately known as The Jampot.

“The Gentlemen Baristas was always inspired by the history and tradition of the original London coffee houses and this is our way of staying true to that – being inspired by the past, but always looking to the future,” Parkes says.

In a world where traceability and accountability are increasingly important, the innovative partnership between Qima Coffee and The Gentlemen Baristas is a bold step towards a more equitable and quality-driven coffee industry. For Yemen, there is also hope that a rich coffee history can cultivate a brighter, more prosperous future.
 

This article was first published in Issue 22 of 5THWAVE magazine.

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