Yohanis Dogoma

Yohanis Dogoma’s drying station sits just 100 meters down the road from Mengeshe Gumi’s in Worka Chelbesa. Quite the neighborhood. On his three-hectare farm at 2,100 meters above sea level, Yohanis specializes in naturally processed Kurume. He was named a national winner in the 2020 Cup of Excellence, and four years later, our importing partners became the first buyers to purchase coffee directly from him for export.

When we visited Ethiopia in 2017, a new law had opened the door for growers to export their own coffee. For many smallholders, the cost and logistics still put direct exporting out of reach. Larger farms were better positioned to take advantage of the change, exporting their own coffee as well as cherries they bought from neighboring growers.

Yohanis’s coffee is what we hoped to see when that door opened. By exporting his own microlot, he has more control over how his coffee is sold and can capture more of its value. And we get to share an exceptional coffee we can trace back to the person who grew it.