Straight from Ethiopia through Romania and roastery Sloane Coffee, we bring to Zagreb and coffee shop Karibu Kaaawa premium Arabica coffee and a completely atypical story about entrepreneurship from Ethiopia. As on most of the African continent, women in Ethiopia are largely exempt from the company management. Luckily we found a completely different story about an Arabica coffee processing company in the Sidamo region, which is a depiction of a successful business run by women. Its developed system of coffee quality control at purchase, which motivates farmers on continuous business development and product quality improvement is what makes this business even more special.

Tizita Bizuneh is a successful entrepreneur in the coffee industry, the wife of Israel Degfa and the owner of numerous stations for green coffee processing. Aside from the fact that the Bonda Kochere coffee processing station is in her ownership, this place is under the complete control of the women’s management. Namely, in Ethiopia, this form of governance is almost impossible to meet in practice. This washing station works in a way that the coffee cherries are bought exclusively from local small farmers.

The characteristic payment system in Ethiopia is conceived in such a way that the government determines a fixed price for each harvest. This station, on the other hand, functions in a slightly different way, which was introduced in the beginnings by Israel itself, Tizit's husband, teaching farmers how to harvest only red coffee cherries for which they will receive a higher purchase price. No matter what fixed price the government sets, the farmer’s purchase price will depend solely on the quality of the coffee harvested. In order to control the entire redemption system, Israel created a farmer registration program: everyone was given their membership number and in a such a way creating a product quality monitoring system. Through this program, micro loans are also offered for those who want to improve quality in coffee. Farmers are paid on coffee delivery, and those on who continuously improvement in the quality of coffee has been notices, will be paid an additional fee in the moment of sale of their coffee to green coffee buyers. Being a member of this program does not mean that farmers are obliged to sell a coffee exclusively to Tiziti, but only that the quality of the products is monitored and that they are able to access to facilities such as schools and health centers created during this mutal cooperation.

All this certainly affects the quality of the final coffee beverage in our cups. This coffee is characterized by fruity notes. Coffee is roasted in such a way that it can be prepared both as an espresso and as a filter coffee (the so-called OMNI style in coffee roasting). You can certainly prepare this coffee as a Turkish coffee or in moka. You can also enjoy it if you subscribe to Karibu coffee at www.karibukaaawa.com. This interesting story make this coffee a unique gift for Women's Day (the so-called March 8). Enjoy a coffee that tells one interesting and inspiring story!