Birhanu Dido Awacho - Ethiopia 2021

Birhanu is a coffee farmer in Halo Hartumie kebele, Gedeb woreda in Gedeo zone of SNNP region. He has been farming coffee for the last 30 years. Applying organic agricultural practice, he grows the 74112 coffee variety on his four hectares of land, and annually he collects about 5300 kilograms of coffee Assisted by the local agricultural extension worker, Birhanu processes his harvest into natural coffee and then sells it on the nearby local market in Dilla town. He says he is not happy with the price his coffee fetches, so he decided to enter the 2021 Cup of Excellence coffee competition and is very excited that he has is one of the winners eligible for the auction. Birhanu says he was encouraged by the training provided by Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain Activity on how to grow and harvest specialty coffee which was provided in 2020. “I hope to find a better market’ he said.