Basha Bekele and his father have provided coffee for the Sidama Union for years, growing and processing before exporting the coffee through the union's export license. However, the Ethiopian government has recently made it possible for smallholders to obtain their own export license leading to this, the very first import of Basha's coffee unblended.

It's an exciting prospect, creating better margins for Basha and his farms and giving us the chance to have this beautifully grown Walega unadulterated. We are also able to trace more closely how the coffee operation is run, and we're proud to be able to support Basha. He is known as a community minded man in his home of Bombe, and he pays the farms that he collects coffee from both when he procures their yields, and also once the coffees sell on the international market.