Tessema Edima

Tessema Edima started working in coffee from an early age and remembers helping his father and his uncles pick coffee from patches of land in the local area. Coffee is farmed in the Reko Onacho area in small-holding operations. The coffee is traditionally grown in a semi-wild state with little management and alongside other crops for the local markets. We first sampled Tessema’s coffee a few years ago through Trabocca’s (a European coffee importer) Operation Cherry Red programme and following auction. We were impressed with the coffee and have been buying it ever since. The supply chain to get Tessema’s coffee to our counter is a little more complex in comparison to the larger farms we buy from such as Suke Quto. Tessema does not process his coffee himself and so he relies on a collector, processor, and a dry miller to be able to export his coffee. Setting up a processing station to use once a year, for a small amount of coffee, is not cost effective so farmers this size rely on cherry collection points and washing stations in the area. Tessema delivers his coffee to Testi Coffee who transfers it to their closest washing station for processing and then on to Addis Ababa for final preparation for export. Without Testi Coffee and Trabocca, Tessema would have difficulty getting his coffee to the international market, and we would not be able to have this beautifully refined coffee on our counter.