“If the quality goes up, we can charge a bit more, and then we can pay our farmers more, too,” says Ahadu Woubshet, founder and CEO of Gora Coffee by Moyee Ethiopia.
Gora Coffee works closely with its farmers, and currently, it sources directly from 1,800 small holder farmers. It plans to grow to 3,000 farmers by 2025, impacting 6,000 more people in the community.
As a result of this collaboration with IKEA, over 500 small scale certified farm holders will gain livelihood opportunities in the first year alone (2022). The impact and opportunities will further go up in future.
Besides transparent pricing, the company offers jobs to those who need them most. 48 per cent of their employees are women, who typically have no access to job opportunities or get poor monetary compensation due to gender discrimination.
“I believe if you give a person a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. We want to help people be in a position where they can generate a decent livelihood for themselves. It makes all the difference in their life. They feel empowered; I think that is important,” says Cristiana.
