Coffee is generally grown in Abyssinia by small farmers, who mostly finance themselves and sell the crop to native brokers, who in turn sell it to representatives of foreign houses in the larger trading centers. Trading methods between farmer and broker are not much more than the old system of barter. In the southwestern section, where the Abyssinian coffee grows wild, transport to the nearest trading center is by mule train, and not infrequently by camel back. In the Harar district, the women of the farmers living near Harar the market center, carry the coffee in long shallow baskets on their heads to the native brokers. In the more remote places the coffee farmer waits for the broker to call on him. From the town of Harar the coffee is transported by mule or camel train to Dire-Daoua, whence it is shipped by rail to Jibuti, to be sent by direct steamers to Europe, or across the Gulf of Aden to Aden in Arabia.
Coffee-Laden Oxen Fording Stream, Colombia
Ten different languages are spoken in Harar. In order successfully to engage in the coffee business there, it is necessary either to become proficient in all these tongues, or to engage some one who is.
Transporting Coffee by Muleback in the City of Cucuta, Colombia
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| Coffee Cargo Carriers That Operate on Lake Maracaibo and Tributary Rivers | |
One of the lake and river steamers