JARC 74110 & 74112: The Ethiopian Coffee Varietals Buyers Keep Seeing on Lot Sheets

Ten years ago, an Ethiopian offer sheet said "heirloom" and nothing more. Today, serious lot documentation increasingly names varietals: 74110, 74112, Kurume, Dega, Wolisho. Buyers who understand what these names mean — and what they don't — can read a lot sheet more accurately, ask sharper questions at the cupping table, and market their coffees with real provenance instead of vague romance.

What are JARC 74110 and 74112?

74110 and 74112 are selections released by the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC) in 1979. The naming convention encodes their history: the first two digits are the year the mother tree was collected (1974), and the remaining digits identify the individual selection. Both were chosen from wild material in the Metu-Bishari forest area of Illubabor, in south-western Ethiopia, during a national programme to find trees resistant to coffee berry disease (CBD), which had devastated Ethiopian production in the early 1970s.

They were released as CBD-resistant cultivars and distributed to smallholders across the southern growing regions. Decades later, they are among the most widely planted named varietals in Yirgacheffe, Gedeb, Guji, and Sidama — which is why they now surface constantly on specialty lot documentation.

How do 74110 and 74112 differ in the field and the cup?

Both are compact, short-statured trees with small, dense beans — one reason Ethiopian screen sizes run smaller than Latin American equivalents. 74110 is slightly shorter with smaller leaves and is often described by agronomists as the more uniform of the two; 74112 tends to a marginally larger bean. In practice, at the cupping table, the difference between the two selections is far smaller than the difference made by altitude, soil, shade, and processing.

What they share is the quality ceiling that made them famous: at 1,900m+ in Gedeb or Yirgacheffe, washed lots dominated by 74110/74112 produce the classic profile — jasmine, bergamot, stone fruit, delicate tea-like body — that buyers associate with the region's best coffees. Processed as naturals, the same trees give heavier berry and tropical-fruit character.

What are Kurume, Dega, and Wolisho?

These three names work differently. They are not research-station releases but farmer-named landrace types, identified by growers on morphology — leaf shape, tree architecture, bean size — rather than genetic certification:

• Kurume — small-leafed, small-beaned, compact trees; prized for intensely sweet, complex cups; common across Yirgacheffe and Gedeb.
• Dega — named after the highland ("dega") climate zone; medium bean, frequently associated with floral washed profiles.
• Wolisho — larger trees and larger beans; often contributes body and stone-fruit weight to a blend of types within a lot.

A single smallholder garden typically interplants several of these alongside JARC selections, so most "Kurume lot" labels really mean "predominantly Kurume." That is not a flaw — it is how Ethiopian smallholder agriculture works, and it is part of why Ethiopian lots cup with such layered complexity. For the genetics behind this diversity, see our guide to Ethiopian heirloom coffee.

Why varietal names are appearing on more Ethiopian lot sheets

Three forces are driving the shift from "heirloom" to named varietals. First, competition: as Gesha demonstrated, varietal identity commands price premiums, and washing stations that can document their tree stock capture more value. Second, traceability systems built for certifications and EUDR geolocation have made plot-level data collection routine, and varietal information rides along. Third, buyer literacy: roasters now ask. A supplier who can answer — with documentation — signals a professionally run chain from farm to port.

What varietal information should a buyer request?

• Dominant type(s) in the lot: e.g. "predominantly 74110/74112" or "mixed Kurume/Wolisho garden stock" — honest suppliers will say "mixed" when it is mixed.
• Source basis: is the claim based on washing-station records, nursery invoices, or field identification? Nursery-documented JARC stock is the most verifiable.
• Altitude band and zone: varietal expression is altitude-dependent; 74110 at 1,600m and at 2,100m are different cups.
• Current-crop Q-grade: varietal names describe potential; the Q-grade certificate describes what this season's lot actually scored.

What this means for your next Ethiopian contract

Varietal-documented lots are still the minority, and they often carry no premium yet outside competition circles — which makes them one of the better value plays in specialty sourcing today. A washed Gedeb dominated by documented 74110 at 2,000m is, cup for cup, some of the most distinctive arabica money can buy.

Speciality Arabica documents varietal composition on lot sheets wherever washing-station records support it, across our current lot list. Tell us your target profile and we will match it to documented lots from the current harvest.