ETHIOPIA ORIGIN TRIP 2025

Roaster and marketing manager, Corey was in Ethiopia for the 2 weeks in January with Yusho from Fuglen Tokyo, visiting coffee producers together with our friends Nordic Approach and Heleanna Georgalis and her team at MOPLACO Trading.

PART I

They traveled all over the coffee growing areas of southern Ethiopia and visited stations in Bombe & Shantewene in Bensa (Sidama); Danche, Chelchele & Banko Gotiti in Gedeb (Gedeo); Konga Yirgacheffe (Gedeo); and Benti Nenka & Buku Abel in Dimtu Hambela (Guji). This origin trip is important for developing and investing in long-term relationships with the producers we work with as well as understanding more about growing/processing coffee and value chain dynamics in Ethiopia. 

This was an amazing trip with fantastic people! Fuglen was joined by several other amazing roasters from around the world including: 
 

Thank you Nordic Approach, Tropiq for putting together such a great trip!

PART II

After spending 1 week with the Nordic team, Corey said farewell to the group and returned back to the South of Ethiopia to meet up with Heleanna from MOPLACO Trading. Together they traveled to partner stations in Nansebo, West Arsi , Chire in Sidama, and the MOPLACO Bensa Logita washing station in Sidama. It was an amazing time reconnecting with our closest partner in Ethiopia and hearing about all of the challenges and expectations of producing coffee in Ethiopia. 

 

Before working at Fuglen, Corey lived in Ethiopia and worked with Heleanna, photographing many of her coffee stations around the country. Having moved back from Ethiopia to Norway in 2020, this was his first time back in 5 years. It was a special time to reconnect with Heleanna and gain a deeper understanding of producing, sourcing and buying green coffee from Ethiopia, having now worked in the coffee industry for a few years.