In Ethiopia, Coffee is not only a beverage that completes your daily meal but it is also part of your daily joy. The brilliant Ethiopian coffee ceremony, a sign of true hospitality of the ancient country, allures to all your senses and illuminate your day. Visitors from across the world relished the ceremony for decades setting their feet in an Ethiopian soil.
The green coffee beans, handroasted in front of coffee lovers, brown or blackenin the coffee pan so that the desired flavor could be brewed.
The varieties of sound emitting from the cracking of the beans bring rhythm to the ears, the aroma that fills a livingroom rising from the roasted beans wafts to the nose, not to mention the glaring adornment around a large coffee table, print ever lasting memory on part takers’ mind.
Those experiences are now branded into Garden of Coffee with the entrepreneurial skills of a young and talented lady, Bethelihem Tilahun Alemu—another milestone for the founder of global footwear brand, Sole Rebels, back in 2005. She has already ventured to open 100 cafes in China. The new global brand Garden of Coffee has made it easy for foreigners to enjoy the coffee side of Ethiopians’ life.
“We use no machine to roast the coffee beans. We created opportunity for people oversees to capture the real feeling of Ethiopian coffee ceremony or the magic of Ethiopian coffee,” she told The Ethiopian Herald. She said she has learnt a lot from Sole Rebeles, and appreciated the art of making coffee in Ethiopiawhich she interweaved both to create her new brand, Garden of Coffee.
“I know how the international market operates, and managed to realize my long-held dream of exporting Ethiopian coffee as we live it.” Her journey started in 2016 with 36 employees. Currently, her company creates jobs to 130 citizens, including to accomplished coffee artisans. “Our methods require a lot of people to be involved in selecting and roasting coffee beans and packaging coffee powder.”
Bethlihem has hopes that the number of employees will go high when the agreements her company entered with various countries sees the light of day. A lot of people subscribe to buy our coffee every month online, she says, listing Garden of Coffee’s export destination as the UK, Germany, US, and China.
And yet, her company signed agreement to export the products to Canada as of the summer of 2019. “Creating jobs, contributing our share toforex earning increment and above all promoting our country’s culture are among the objectives we cherish.” What is more, the company prepares personalized roasting for individual orders that would be shipped to foreign countries.Garden of Coffee roasts and ships five varieties of coffee namely Yirgacheffe, Harar, Wollega, Jimma and Sydama coffee.
“I have so many hard-won contacts. What matters most for our business is the prevailing oflasting peace in my country as it has direct impact on businesses like ours. Otherwise, our business has good prospect to grow even bigger.” She says her love to her country and the country’s diverse culture has given her impetus to look what is around and create global brands that could improve the country’s images. “We buy coffee beans from ECX, a bit tough to the products’ traceability.
The government has been looking into ways that we can help them buy direct from farmers,”as she mentions as a challenge. A new legal framework that would pave the way for an improved coffee trade value chain is in draft stage, according to information obtained from Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority Recently Ethiopian/African brands are penetrating the international market.
This is a huge leap frogging to individual countries and the continent as well. Many feared that globalization’s will expand consumerism in Africa. But if young and talented people like Bethelihem could see into the wealth of culture around them, Africa could be competitive in the international trade as well.
The concept ‘global village’ was first appeared in Marshall McLuhan’s book (1962). He forecast ‘a single constricted space resonant with tribal drums.’ Though his prophesy is coming true, his “drum beat” metaphor is far from being correct on many accounts. The “tribal” drum beats of Africa, for instance, are forced to leave all the spaces to the drum beats of the global North—be this language, technology, education, dressing or what have you. That’s why young entrepreneurs have to come to the fore and encouraged than ever.
Herald January 18/2019
BY WORKU BELACHEW
