The Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU) is an Ethiopian organization, established in June 1999, which represents approximately 102,950 coffee growers, processors, and exporters of the Oromia Region of southern and western Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee.[1] The union's members are organized into 115 cooperatives. They grow coffee of the arabica species exclusively, and produce both conventionally grown and organically grown beans. The union has chosen to bypass many of the middlemen that characterize the international coffee trade, sorting, roasting, and exporting its own coffee rather than simply growing and picking it the way most other Ethiopian coffee farmers do. The union returns 70 percent of its gross profits to its cooperatives.[2]