The Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS) reports the completion and evaluation of CAFE II Project (Coffee Alliance For Ethiopia) on program benefiting small holders coffee farmers

In 2014 the Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS) initiated the CAFE Project (Coffee Alliance For Ethiopia) in the Amhara state in the northern region where coffee plantation is not widely cultivated to support small holders coffee farmers in the islands of Lake Tana. In addition to improving quality and productivity, HRNS’ CAFE Project has components dedicated to balancing gender equity in the farming households, retaining youth in farming and mitigating the effects of climate change on farming communities.

One of the CAFE Project’s first initiatives was to help Amhara farmers organize into legally registered cooperatives. Zege Coop was the first to restructure under the Amhara Coffee Farmer’s Cooperative Union (ACFCU,) newly formed and legally registered in 2015. 

Lake Tana is not only the largest lake in Ethiopia, it also happens to be the source of the Blue Nile river which runs over 900 miles from its source to Khartoum, Sudan all the way to Alexandria, Egypt creating the wet delta. In a country known for its incredible internal coffee consumption (around 60% of coffee produced in Ethiopia is consumed in the country that make them the heaviest coffee drinkers in the world,) the people in the northern part of the country (including Amhara Region) consume more coffee than any other.