A single coffee bean travels through many places and passes 25 pairs of hands before it reaches you. 25 moments wherein someone can harm the quality. If we do not work with knowledgeable people in origin that are equipped to handle specialty, the quality is at risk.
This is the reason why we have an office in Addis Ababa, and the reason you get the quality coffees from Ethiopia. With well-equipped locals on top of operations, we can oversee and control everything that happens to your coffee while it is still in origin.
In our Addis Ababa office, you find dedicated cuppers, operational and logistic wizards, and an innovative manager who leads the pack. We want to introduce a handful of people that make sure you get the quality coffees you seek. First up, Yodit Tsegaye.
Yodit has been eating roasted coffee beans since she was 3 years old. Growing up in a traditional Ethiopian family, coffee had a central part in the rhythm of the day. At least twice a day, the Tsegaye’s came together to catch up while drinking coffee in the traditional Ethiopian way.
At the start of the 2019 harvest, Yodit Tsegaye – first woman pictured on the left – was appointed as Trabocca’s General Manager in Addis Ababa. The coffee industry in Ethiopia is “traditionally managed”, says Yodit. She wants to do things differently and become a role model in the market.
The team in Addis Ababa does three things, “Quality inspection, logistics administration and facilitating the sourcing of coffee,” Yodit says, “We are the communication bridge between Ethiopia to the rest of our team.”
“Trabocca is contributing through innovate research and knowledge transfer to the sector in developing the concept of specialty coffee.” Yodit explains, “I love that I am part of a team that is socially responsible and honestly devoted to improving the lives of all involved in the supply chain.”
Yonas is one of the founders of Trabocca’s base in Ethiopia, immersed in the fascinating world of Ethiopian coffee for the past 17 years. “It’s like family here. I’ve spent more years with Trabocca than I have been married”, he jokes.
Yonas is a core part of the team that makes sure every trip to the field proceeds flawlessly. Yonas is also an integral part of the quality department. His duties are sample care and buildup, including drawing techniques and drawing. He also coordinates sample collection from exporters.
Yonas is passionate about quality. His face lights up when he talks about all the possibilities of presenting a perfect product to coffee buyers – not just the coffee, but the way it is packaged and presented. His long-term goal and dream are to find ways to export each individual farmer’s coffee separately. “I know the road is long, and I don’t know how it will work out, but this is what I dream of doing”, he says.
Yonas believes that a major reason for lower quality coffee is the fact that many farmers’ coffees are mixed and sold as one. “A good farmer’s produce is swallowed up by the rest”, he says. “If you give a good farmer the chance to export his own coffee in his own name, he’s recognized for his hard work. Alemayehu Daniel is a good example of how this would work.”
Endale bumped into Trabocca while working in a furniture sales company that shared the same building with Trabocca at the time. He’s now been here for seven years.
Working as an inspector, Endale oversees the final cleaning process before export and ensures everything proceeds smoothly when loading coffee onto containers for shipment. Endale finds working in coffee enjoyable, and especially enjoys seeing changes happen in farmers’ lives.
“When you see farmers being helped, it feels good. And the feel of being at home at the office is amazing. It is coffee that brought this all about. The work becomes a part of you”, he says. “I enjoy it, and I particularly hope to continue helping make improvements for coffee farmers.”
Visit our team page to view all colleagues from offices in Addis Ababa, Amsterdam, Minneapolis.