Ethiopia | Alemayehu Hillo Meko

As with our recent Kebede Wako, this coffee is a rare chance to connect with an individual farmer in Ethiopia, a country with a strong tradition of cooperative blended smallholder lots.

Alemayehu Hillo Meko decided to get an export license in 2020, a route which has only been available to farmers since 2017. It has not been an easy journey to this point: Alemayehu's father split the farm between his six sons leaving him a 2 hectare plot to cultivate.  Over time, Alemayehu has been able to buy adjoining farmland from neighbours who have migrated to the Bale Zone.  He is now the proud owner of 6.55 hectares of farmland.

The farm is managed by Alemayehu and his wife.  During harvest they are able to hire 50 workers daily to help with picking.  Their farm has the Lodoma river running through it and Alemayehu dreams of eventually using this to build a washing station on his land. After picking, his coffee is dried on 120 raised beds and turned six times a day during the approximately 3 week drying process to ensure even drying.