Mustefa Abalulessa, Ethiopia

About this coffee

There are over two million smallholder coffee farmers in Ethiopia, but only one Mustefa Abalulessa. He’s considered an industry pioneer and a community leader in his region, where he provides coffee seeds and ongoing support to the local coffee sector. This is classic Jimma coffee—bursting with big stone fruit flavours and cleansing acidity. The team is delighted to share it once again. In 2017, a legislative change in the Ethiopian coffee industry made it easier for producers to gain export licenses, allowing them to sell more directly to customers like Seven Seeds. A fairly radical shift in the ECX (Ethiopian Coffee Exchange) enabled greater vertical integration, removing barriers to market entry for producers. Mustefa Abalulessa was one of the first to secure such a license, and after an initial meeting at origin in 2018, Seeds began purchasing directly from Mustefa in 2021—and have done so every year since. Changes like these have made it easier to establish and maintain direct relationships with smaller coffee exporters, reducing bureaucracy and improving pricing transparency.