Alemayehu Daniel Miju

Alemayehu Daniel Miju inherited just over ten hectares of land from his father along with coffee seedlings to start his farm. Alongside coffee, the farm has cereals, barley, and beans which are sold in the local markets. Alemayehu is a third-generation farmer, learning his trade from his father and now working with his brothers as a family to grow coffee on their respective farms. We first met Alemayehu after the 2018 crop and this will be the sixth year that we have had his coffee on our counter. A lot has changed for Alemayehu and his family over this time and instrumental to this was the Operation Cherry Red programme set up by Trabocca (a European coffee importer based in Amsterdam). This programme enabled producers like Alemayehu place their coffee directly with coffee roasters willing to pay a premium for great quality. The premium has meant that Alemayehu and his family have been able to make improvements to their farm, move closer to the local schools, and buy a truck. These developments have in turn helped to increase the productivity of the farm resulting in an additional increase in income. Because Alemayehu can export directly (under licence by the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry) he is able to know how much his coffee is worth, where it goes, and who is enjoying it. This means so much to farmers who traditionally relied on the internal mechanisms of the local market where coffee was blended by type and traceability was lost in the system.