Lala Salama Decaf , Bette Buna, Ethiopia | Sparkling Water Process FSC-8979

This coffee from Guji Megadu, Ethiopia comes to us through our friends at Bette Buna. Bette Buna literally translates to ‘House of Coffee’ and this company has been deeply rooted in the village ever since Grandfather Syoum and Grandmother Emame asked Dawit and Hester to take over their farm, but more importantly, their responsibility for building the community of Taferi Kela. Since establishing 5 years ago in Sidama, Bette Buna has expanded their impact to Guji Megadu as well where they work with local community leaders to replicate the model in another region. Bette Buna have a small model farm of their own in Guji, and work with local chiefs to improve processing on their lots as well. Megadu is part of the Shakisso Woreda of Guji and is one of Guji’s most remote communities.

The region is very mountainous and densely forested. The soil is rich and the potential for coffee is spectacular, making it one of the most exceptional coffee growing regions in the world. Building opportunities Coffee production in Ethiopia accounts for about a third of the country's GDP but more than 90 percent of people working in coffee don’t make a livable income. Bette Buna has set out to change that in their community. They teach their community farmers to improve their soil, grow back agro-forest systems, and teach the importance of picking ripe cherries. Ripe cherries weigh more and produce better coffee, so the farmers get paid more by weight, and also receive a quality premium. Perhaps most importantly, they distribute more than 350,000 healthy seedlings every year from their in-house nursery.

These seedlings are climate-change adapted varietals, and on average the farmers who plant them make minimum $2 per year per seedling once the trees are grown. This means an economic impact in the area of more than $650,000 a year in a region where the average household income is less than $50 per month for an average family size of 9 people.