Mustefa Abalulesa

Goma District, Oma Funtule Kebele, Ethiopia

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Partner since: 2017 Traceable to: 2 Brothers, 2 Farms: Koye and Chanko Altitude: 2100 MASL

Supplier Structure:

Family-run estate and seed operation producing its own coffee for export while supplying planting seed to farmers across western Ethiopia.

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Community Context

Mustefa Abalulesa Abagibe farms in Gomma District, near Agaro, on an exceptional parcel located over 2,000 meters in high, dense forest. Before it was cleared for coffee—though ample tree cover remains for shade—this land served as a hideout for his father, Abalulessa, a guerrilla fighting the Derg military regime. After repeated failed attempts to capture him, and after losing soldiers in the process, the government reportedly placed a bounty on him through the local community. Near the end of his life, in deteriorating health, Abalulessa asked an old friend to report that he had killed him so the friend could claim the reward. He died in 1977, when Mustefa was two years old. Later, through an amnesty and reconciliation process, the land that now anchors Mustefa’s farm was granted to his family.

Today, Mustefa and his brother Musa farm that land alongside another plot seven kilometers away. In addition to producing coffee for export—something they began several years ago, with Crop to Cup as their first buyer—Mustefa is also trusted by government and NGO agricultural partners to produce high-quality planting seed for farmers across the region. At his facility, Koye Farm, rows of dried parchment are stored under a fine layer of ash to help inhibit mold before distribution and planting. That dual role, as both coffee producer and seed supplier, makes Koye Farm distinctive within western Ethiopia, and we continue to regard Mustefa as a singular partner, through and through.

Country Context

Ethiopia is a coffee powerhouse. It’s the birthplace of the plant, a top 10 global producer by volume and the largest in Africa, and coffee here is always as culturally central as it is economically vital. Nearly 15 million Ethiopians rely on coffee for income — it represents about 40% of exports and 60% of foreign income. Unsurprisingly, the magnitude of this industry ensures that the government always has a hand in it, with systems shapeshifting with the dynamics of the state.

Proudly never colonized, Ethiopia was long ruled by a Tigrayan-led minority government, until 2018, when mass protests brought Abiy Ahmed to power as the first Oromo president. Oromia, the nation’s largest region and namesake of its largest tribe, sprawls south and west from the capital across much of the country’s coffee heartland.

After an initial period of reform and legislation under Ahmed, the pandemic precipitated a backsliding domino effect: elections planned for 2020 were postponed, but Tigray defiantly held their own regional elections, an action deemed illegal by the federal government, sparking a conflict that escalated into a civil war with a precarious peace agreement not met until the fall of 2022.

Today, buying coffee in Ethiopia happens three ways: through the national auction (the ECX), via Cooperative Unions, or from private farms and out-grower schemes.

* The ECX, launched in 2008 to bring transparency to rural sellers, routes coffee through 55 warehouses where it’s graded and sold in 30-bag contracts. Buyers can’t cup before purchasing, so exporters sometimes allow buyers to cup their own purchases afterward, despite the inability to retain meaningful traceability.

* Coop Unions — organized by geography (Oromia, Sidama, Yirgacheffe, etc.)—aggregate coffee from member societies, split profits with them, and remain the main certified (FTO) channel. Newer players like Kata Maduga have emerged, formed by coops seeking more control over some exceptional lots.

* Private farms and out-grower schemes are the most direct path to traceability, but they’re rare in Ethiopia’s smallholder-heavy landscape—2 hectares are needed for private export eligibility. Larger estates are most common in the west, where land redistribution created bigger blocks. Some mill owners navigate ECX restrictions by registering land as farms, giving them export rights.

Altogether, you have a system that’s constantly shifting—at once bureaucratic and inventive, fragmented yet capable of producing some of the most singular coffees in the world.