It had been almost ten years since Tom was last in Ethiopia when he returned in December last year. Although the feeling and overall experience of the trip felt familiar, the country has changed significantly during that time. This time, he was not a customer of DRWakefield, but joined by customers, alongside Guus, who manages our Amsterdam office.
Guus, Bire and Tom at Adame Clean Water Site
Photo credit: Tom Kimmel
Back in 2015, I witnessed student protests in Addis Ababa. Those demonstrations grew in the years that followed and ultimately helped bring down the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 2019, ending its 28-year dominance of Ethiopian politics. This paved the way for the rise of Abiy Ahmed, now Prime Minister and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The Tigray War, which dominated global headlines and affected millions of Ethiopians between 2020 and 2022, also reshaped the country, leaving more than 600,000 people dead and over 9 million children out of school.
Despite these challenges, Ethiopia has made progress too, with noticeable infrastructure improvements and high population growth over the decade. According to World Bank data, GDP per capita has steadily improved, with 7.6% growth in 2024 alone. Life expectancy reached 67 years in 2023, up from the mid 50s in the early 2000s. Between 2015 and 2023, access to electricity increased by an impressive 90%, with 55.4% of the population now connected.
Alongside these political, social and demographic shifts, Ethiopia’s coffee industry has also undergone major changes. In 2015, we were fortunate to visit the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), which at the time served as the central hub through which most coffee was channelled for export via auction. In 2021, however, the ECX system was dissolved. Since then, a new landscape has emerged—one in which private companies can directly market and export coffee from their own farms and washing stations through vertically and horizontally integrated business models.
During my 2015 trip, I saw first-hand how coffee can drive meaningful and lasting social change within producing communities. At that time, this was largely limited to Fairtrade cooperatives, where the allocation of Fairtrade premiums had clearly delivered significant benefits to cooperative members and their surrounding communities.
On our recent trip, we revisited some of the same cooperatives, and it was incredible to see how well this model continues to function and how Fairtrade premiums still add value at both cooperative and union level. However, alongside this established approach, a new and interesting development seems to have emerged following the dissolution of the ECX: impactful social and environmental change driven by private enterprise.
Sweet Berry Clean Water Project
Since 2021, DRWakefield has been working with partners in Ethiopia to fund a social project focused primarily on improving access to clean water for individuals and families in coffee-growing communities. We’ve named it the ‘Sweet Berry’ Project. Access to safe water remains a major challenge across the Horn of Africa, and Ethiopia is no exception. In many rural areas, communities have long relied on unprotected rivers and springs, often walking long distances to collect water that is frequently unreliable and contaminated.
Although Ethiopia has made meaningful progress in expanding access to clean water in recent years, developments such as the Tigray War have significantly slowed the sector’s growth. According to the 2024 UNICEF JMP Report, around 45% of the population—more than 60 million people—still struggle to access safe drinking water. An estimated 60% to 80% of communicable diseases in the country are linked to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices. This highlights how essential investment in clean water is for improvements in rural communities in Ethiopia. The Sweet Berry Project aims to tackle these issues by funding infrastructure and maintenance of clean water access points throughout Ethiopia’s rural coffee-lands, benefitting not only the coffee producers who grow the coffee we source, but their families and communities.
The Sweet Berry Project is funded through premiums added to purchases of the coffees associated with it. Currently, these are Washed and Natural coffees produced in the Yirgacheffe region and processed at the Adame Washing Station. In previous years, however, Sweet Berry coffees have also come from other growing areas, with all generated funds returned to the communities that produced them.
Between 2021 and 2024, Sweet Berry premiums raised a total of $25,926. These funds supported the construction of clean water wells in four villages: Miyah, Janchu, Bakbas and Idido.
Adame Washing Station and Clean Water
We visited the Adame Washing Station and the associated clean water project with Birhanemeskel, known as Bire, on 12th December. Bire is the “B” in BNT, and the “T” is his childhood friend and business partner, Tewodros (or Teddy). DRWakefield has been buying coffee from BNT and Ranger, the friends’ sister company, for more than eight years. In 2025, we sourced six containers of Washed and Natural Sweet Berry coffee from them, all processed at the Adame Washing Station.
The Adame Washing Station sits at 1,900 masl in the Yirgacheffe region, northeast of Yirgacheffe town. Bire and Teddy acquired the site seven years ago, and during our visit it was undergoing extensive refurbishment. A new collection warehouse and wet mill were under construction, along with a beautiful blue ceremonial hut for workers and visitors, and a 103,000 litre water tank for coffee processing. Surrounding the station on the slopes are 200 meticulously arranged raised beds, capable of processing up to eight containers of coffee each harvest.
After one of the warmest welcomes of our trip, complete with singing and dancing from the site team, we met several people who have been instrumental in bringing the Water Project to life. Desu, the Washing Station Manager for the past five years, oversees the work alongside a contractor, Solomon, who manages the technical details. Within the station grounds lies a 130-metre-deep, pumped water well, which normally supplies water for coffee processing. As part of the new project, this water will also be pumped to a nearby village to provide clean water to local residents. On 17th December, just a few days after our visit, a new 13.5kW (15horsepower) pump was installed. It draws water from the well and sends it 900 metres uphill to the community site.
After leaving the washing station, we travelled up the hill to see the clean water site itself. The impressive 50,000 litre tank is unmissable, along with the project’s pale blue tap stands. Adjacent to the tank are two schools: Adame Primary School, with 824 male and 600 female students, and Adame Secondary School, with 159 male and 106 female students. All of these students will now have direct access to clean drinking water.
In total, the well will supply water to five villages in the region: Debe, Sisay, Onincho, Gure and Hambela. Across these communities are roughly 1,000 households, each with an average of six members. This means the Adame Sweet Berry Project will provide clean water to an estimated 6,000 people.
As we visited the site and the neighbouring schools, we had the chance to discuss what the project means to the local community. We learned that a typical round trip to collect clean water used to take over an hour. The installation of the well will therefore not only ensure safe, reliable water access but will also give families more time in their day—time that can now be spent on education, work and community life.
In 2025, through the support of DRW customers through the purchase of Washed and Natural Sweet Berry coffee, $25,397 was raised to fund the construction of the water well in Adame.
DRWakefield, BNT, Montagne Coffee, and the Local Community at Adame Clean Water Project. Photo credit: Tom Kimmel
Visiting the Adame Sweet Berry project in person was a powerful reminder of why origin relationships matter so deeply in coffee. Standing beside the people who grow, process and depend on this crop makes the impact of our shared work unmistakably real. The commitment shown by Bire, Teddy and BNT demonstrates how meaningful change can happen when commercial success and community investment go hand-in-hand. Seeing the Sweet Berry Project in action reinforced that these partnerships are not just about great coffee, they are about long term relationships that help strengthen the communities behind it.
