OUR HISTORY
Local Family-Owned Business
The founders of Asikana Coffee,
Mr. Bodja Gelalecha and his family have deep community ties with the area stretching back for over 200 years. Coffee cultivation is an integral part of rural life in that part of the country. Bodja,
the eldest son of a farmer, with a thirst for greater knowledge and education, grabbed the opportunity for schooling at an early age. Having finished his master’s degree in developmental studies, he worked in various development projects that informed his vision for Asikana. Our goal is to improve living standards in our family’s native community by developing and educating its’ members in producing high quality coffee that is competitive in the world market.
The company hinges on the belief that true sustainable development starts from here -
the farmers, the community and the land.
FARM FACTS
Asikana operates an out-growers scheme through which it supports over 500 farmers and their families in the surrounding areas. The farm has acquired 200 hectares of land, (equivalent to almost 500 acres) from the state government. 51 of those are covered by coffee plantation, giving us great opportunity to grow the economic state of the region. We have also set up educational trainings for the out-growers to gain more knowledge and proper organic agricultural techniques in order to maximize the farmers’ success. We are ideally located for the production of coffee situated at an altitude of between 1,500 and 1,700 meters above sea level in the part of Western Ethiopia where coffee is abundant. Asikana also has a warehouse and a coffee hulling machine with capacity to hull 1 ton per hour at the farm site.
Additionally, we are in the process of planting a processing station in
Ethiopia’s capital city Addis Ababa.
The head office resides in Addis as well with the farm itself residing about 500 km west in the Aira district of the Western Wollega region.
APICULTURE
Honey production is the perfect compliment to the coffee plant as it promotes improved yield through cross-pollination. Asikana is fortunate enough to have availability of water and ample forage for bees to thrive. Through utilizing traditional knowledge of beekeeping and introducing transitional and modern hives, we are able to increase their success,
therefore increasing the success of the coffee production overall.