Mustefa Abakeno

Ethiopia

Pink Grapefruit / Vanilla / Lemon

Mustefa Abakeno is a smallholder farmer from Jimma in western Ethiopia. His farm has now grown to 18 hectares and is located at 2,040 masl. Mustefa invested in processing equipment early on and established the Beshasha wet mill, enabling him to process and export his own lots and engage directly with buyers. The wet mill also processes coffee from neighbouring smallholders who partner with Beshasha.

Mustefa’s relationship with Falcon began in 2021, when Falcon’s agronomy team began investing in the support and training of the neighbouring smallholders Mustefa works with. This included installing shade netting to protect coffee at the hottest parts of the day, as well as increased monitoring to ensure uniform moisture levels during drying.

Mustefa also maintains a small field laboratory equipped with a high-specification moisture reader. This allows Mustefa and the Falcon team to take precise measurements of each lot coming through the washing station, enabling individual lots to be critically assessed and categorised according to quality.

In 2022, Mustefa invested in four additional purchasing sites, allowing him to extend his outreach to neighbouring smallholders. Coffee from these partner farmers is brought to either Beshasha or its sister wet mill, Kabira, for processing.

Through this growing network, Mustefa and the Falcon team are able to continue investing in the local coffee-growing communities, helping to improve both coffee quality and productivity while creating greater opportunities for smallholder farmers.