We've never seen Ethiopia like this

The feeling of hope and community in the village of Taferi Kela is something I’ve never experienced before, despite years of buying coffee in Ethiopia.

When I’ve previously visited farms and mills with other coffee companies, I’ve encountered detachment and deference from the workers there — both toward me and other coffee people. Ethiopians in these places know that coffee buyers are both a reason for their survival and also partly responsible for keeping them poor. I’ve always cared deeply about the wellbeing of coffee producers, but the supply chain for coffee is strongly influenced by colonial norms and relationships.

Then we arrived at Taferi Kela last month, the source of one of our favourite Ethiopian coffees from last year. This is where Bette Buna operates, and where we’re partnering with them on an exciting project to improve farmer livelihoods and produce more astonishing coffees. Suddenly I could see mutual love and respect between the local Bette Buna coffee team and the whole village of Taferi Kela – 70,000 people who understand that the whole operation exists to improve their lives, not just to take their coffee.

This wasn’t a tourism trip. Instead, we were there to help Bette Buna get better prices for their coffee while helping out with a huge amount of development work. Here’s what we saw:

Bette Buna are running the best nursery for coffee seedlings I’ve ever seen in Ethiopia, staffed with an equal opportunity approach. This is unheard of. People with disabilities, as well as widows, older people, young people, and single mothers, are all working together to germinate new coffee trees that will actually flourish in a changing climate. Bette Buna then GIVES THEM AWAY to other farmers, entirely for free.
With the wider buy-in of the local community, many hectares of eucalyptus (a poor quality tree that strips the soil of fertility) are being systematically replaced with coffee and enset trees which will substantially improve both the local environmental landscape and future livelihoods of coffee growers.
While tasting hundreds of lots of coffee from surrounding farms, we experienced a delightful increase in quality that we can’t wait to buy and share, especially because everyone involved is treated with dignity, respect, and humanity.

There’s plenty more to share in the coming weeks, but this work is best done by locals who can change the way that coffee operates. Skylark’s role is to spend £100,000 this year to buy Taferi Kela coffee, then donate an additional £24,000 while sharing staff time and shouting about Bette Buna so that other roasters will buy it too.

Ethiopia as a country has struggled for decades to deal with corruption, violence, and inflation in spite of its undeniable beautyand natural resources. Skylark’s idea is that coffee done ethically is a uniquely powerful tool to change lives, but we can’t and shouldn’t be the boots on the ground. Instead, we’ll happily make this sales pitch and pass the money on: This coffee changes lives.