The founder of Amaro Gayo Coffee
Asnakech Thomas is the first Ethiopian female coffee producer who founded Amaro Gayo Coffee in 2005. She is considered to be the only Ethiopian female coffee farmer and producer. For about a decade, she has been able to grow coffee on her farm in the Amaro district of Southern Ethiopia, which was her dream to be able to produce the best coffee and keep the sustainability of her work.
How the dream started
Asnakech studied agriculture when she lived in the UK. When she returned to Ethiopia, she worked with a group of coffee farmers to assist her with the farm. She made them witness the great outcome of their contribution to the farm. They were able to invest in their farms and put their savings in the local bank branch in their region. Asnakech convinced the bank to open a branch there in Amaro. It is a bit hard to trace the coffee in Ethiopia due to the selling of the green beans by millions of small farms via the national coffee exchange. Asnakech succeeded in creating the traceable Amaro brand coffee and registering it as a known trademark in Europe and the US.
Saving the Ethiopian coffee heritage
At the Amaro farm, Asnakech said they produced the coffee organically for a long time without adding any chemical fertilizers and they will continue doing so in the future. She highlighted that they usually start the harvest season from October to February, producing around 600 bags of green coffee. Asnakech helped funding researches into the arabica coffee varieties which resulted in 58 new varieties. It is important to continue doing researches to preserve their Ethiopian coffee varieties for the future.
A powerful leading woman
Asnakech’s efforts didn’t stop at the coffee farm only. She sets a great example for her role as an employer at the Amaro farm managing all male farmers and providing them with the needed training. She wants to contribute to the development of the local community by establishing a women’s and children’s hospital in the Amaro region. Moreover, she wishes to see tourists visiting the Amaro region, to see how the farmers produce organic coffee. She also offers them an opportunity to pick their coffee during the harvest times.
