When our grandfather Syoum passed away, our grandmother shared her dream for their 2-hectare coffee farm with us: “Please, keep our farm as an open home for all our neighbors. A place where all community members can feel safe, learn and work together to grow a beautiful future through coffee.”
And that's why we started.
We named our company Bette Buna — 'Home of Coffee'.
Dawit & Hester Syoum
Our farm is located around the village of Taferi Kela, a remote and isolated community in the woreda D’ara, far to the south of Sidama.
Although Taferi Kela is facing several economic and social challenges, this coffee district has all of the conditions necessary to produce exceptional coffee: high altitude, ideal climate, rich fertile soil, healthy plant life, and most importantly, strong community.
Read more about Taferi Kela farm
Shortly after the start of Bette Buna, we expanded our farm to the Megadu community in Guji. Working in Guji comes with a lot of unique challenges as well as rewards. This region is renowned for incredible naturally processed coffees, and it is a privilege to work there directly. The Guji zone sits just east of Sidamo, but it is a whole different world in terms of culture and customs.
Read more about Megadu farm
We are very sensitive to the fact that we exist within a farming community, and our approach is to work collaboratively, not competitively, with that wider community. This is mutually beneficial– we help our neighbors thrive, and if we grow demand beyond our farm’s supply we are able to buy good cherries from the farms around us.
We contribute to the community by offering agricultural and post-harvest education as well as free seedlings of climate change resistant varieties from our nursery. Perhaps most importantly, we pay price premiums that make it worthwhile for farmers to harvest only the best cherry.
Our aim isn’t simply to educate, it’s to facilitate opportunities for people to build a better future for themselves.
We know that without strong native ecosystems there will be no hope of growing coffee in 20-30 years’ time.
Along with regenerative farming methods such as intercropping, bee keeping, and natural fertilizers, we are rewilding forests in Sidamo that were cut down, neglected or destroyed by eucalyptus.
We share in Ethiopia's proud legacy of coffee production with world-class results from traditional processing methods. Then we take those results to the next level with modern processing techniques.
We are rooted in our communities and committed to building a positive and sustainable future by educating and creating equal opportunity jobs at our own facilities. Through distributing climate-resistant seedlings and "learning by doing programs" for children, youth and adults, we facilitate our communities to transform their future.
But we're constant on the move! As working together is so much more fun and the scale of impact is bigger- we're partnering in several new upcoming projects!
Stay tuned for more updates on this project, or get in touch if you'd like to donate or be involved.
