SPECIAL EDITION - NIGUSE JILO

Niguse Jilo’s farm is located in Halo Bariti village at 2150 m.a.s.l, where he cultivates the Kurume varietal — one of Ethiopia’s many landrace varietals.

Having inherited his farm from his family, Niguse has remained committed to cultivating specialty coffee there, the money for which helps him to support his 10 children: seven sons and three daughters.

Niguse is also a member of the Bore Nageso farmer group, where he serves as a lead farmer, fully embracing and implementing all the recommended farming technologies and practices.

In 2022, Niguse’s coffee was recognised among the top 40 entries in the Cup of Excellence competition.

Niguse is supported by Mecota Trading, an Ethiopian exporting company specialising in green coffee sourced from smallholder farmers across Ethiopia’s coffee-growing regions. Established in 2023, Mecota Trading supports farmers by consolidating microlots into exportable quantities while promoting traceable and direct trade practices. The company’s model aims to facilitate fair, sustainable trade and to enhance transparency in Ethiopia's coffee market, particularly as an alternative to the traditional Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, where traceability is often limited. 

Mecota Trading’s coffee is known for its diversity, as Ethiopia boasts an unmatched genetic variety of coffee strains. Ethiopian coffees are generally categorized into Landrace varieties, which are native to the Ethiopian highlands, and JARC (Jimma Agricultural Research Center) varieties, which have been selectively bred for their resilience and yield. Mecota leverages these unique coffee varieties to offer its buyers premium coffee with distinct regional flavors and traceable origins.

The company primarily consolidates microlots to create exportable quantities while preserving each lot’s unique profile. This direct sourcing model allows Mecota to retain detailed information about each coffee’s origin and the farmers who grew it, a rarity in a market dominated by anonymous, pooled coffee lots.