Zebad Coffee is Looking for Investors to Help Transform the Ethiopian Coffee Sector

Emebet Tafesse, CEO of coffee trading company Zebad General Export and Import, discusses working with smallholder farmers and supporting women in the rural areas. She also explains why investors should consider Zebad’s project to help transform the Ethiopian coffee sector.

“I have a trading company which purchases coffee from auction, adds value, and exports to our clients. The idea was to go to the grassroots, organizing farmers, developing a business model, and truly develop quality coffee, speciality coffee, traceable coffee, supporting the farmers with their agro economic practice, supporting them with processing, maintaining the quality, and delivering the coffee to the world market. My plan was to work with smallholder farmers and to support the women in the rural areas who really did most of the backbreaking jobs in farming but were being marginalized and not getting enough income for what they did. This is my plan and I have the study and I want to move in that direction and I want to look for some people who have interest to get the best coffee and work with a lady like me and women in coffee in general. We did finance from investors and from foreign lenders. What we have planned on our business plan and our study requires some amount of money. We want to establish a washing station. We want to develop agronomic practices. We want to develop special warehouses with processing systems, quality management, quality control, etc. For all these, we need finance”, says Emebet Tafesse.

“I do have good experience. We are very committed. We came across so many difficulties in sustaining the business. We do have a vision of how to transform Ethiopian coffee for the 21st century, not only for my company Zebad. We want to bring in other Ethiopian exporters to work with our business model. That is what makes us unique. Finance makes things possible, but it is the ambition, the vision, and desirability of the entrepreneur and his determination that make things different. Zebad is not all about increasing sales volume. Of course sales are quite important for a business, but you can transform the business by creating people who really care about the sector, who can transform the sector. We should bring younger people behind us and be a role model for other women entrepreneurs. Coffee is a very challenging business. Many exporters have lost their companies and they quit. We are carrying the sector and motivating others to be in the system and to put Ethiopia in its right position in the world coffee market”, she adds.

ABOUT ZEBAD COFFEE

• Vision: Zebad envisions to expand its existing premium coffee export business and add its weight to further assist in transforming Ethiopian coffee by partnering with smallholder farmers.

• Mission: Zebad’s mission is to export high quality, organic, washed and sun-dried coffee to the international market. Zebad seeks to serve the farmers at grassroot level and coffee importers by exceeding minimum acceptable quality standards and by providing the highest quality product at the lowest possible price. Zebad values that the farmers are at the core of business transaction and get maximum benefit out of the transaction. Zebad’s commitment to the farmers and the country will be reflected through honest and responsible business.

• Competitive Comparison: In order to differentiate its product from the products offered by competitors, Zebad’s beans are traceable, fresh and are shipped within few days of preparation. In addition, all of the farmers and associations from which Zebad purchases coffee adhere to environmentally sound farming practice and do not use pesticides and chemicals in their coffee production.

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