Wild Coffee Ethiopia, the top tier coffee bean roaster and exporter, announces it will open its first international tasting house in Nairobi.
The company which was among the winners of the 2023 Africa Food Awards held in Nairobi, Kenya on June 16 at Safari Park Hotel, through its CEO Gezahegn Mamo, affirmed that it will go global through its first ever branch in the neighboring country.
Wild Coffee which is a pioneer for the sale of value added export coffee via its high standard coffee house, locally, at foreign currency, has built a high reputation for its premium products. As a result it has drawn in a global customer base and played a major role in promoting Ethiopia’s value added coffee besides the traditional and well popular high quality green bean.
The product is one of the few popular Ethiopian value added coffee commodities offered on prominent worldwide ecommerce platforms.
The 2023 edition of the Africa Food Awards, which have become sub-Saharan Africa’s most respected food industry Awards – since the first edition in 2017, has welcomed more than 100 entries from across Africa. With the main categories and sub-categories – indicating the growing influence of the Awards, the young start-ups, national and regional giants and multi-nationals operating in the Continent vied for a place to be celebrated at the Awards.
Winning at the stage for the first time for Ethiopia was Wild Coffee Ethiopia (Fresh Agro Industry PLC) which was awarded as one of the four companies under the category of ‘Rising Star African Food Company of the Year’.
Over 50 African companies received different awards in various categories at the recognition ceremony.
As Gezahegn highlights, this was no small feat, underlining that such a big award is vital for Ethiopia, “Global coffee companies who source the green bean from Ethiopia have been those who were recognized and awarded on international stages. Now when a local company sources its own commodity and puts the standard value addition and becomes recognized on a similar stage, it has a big implication for other similar companies and exporters who engage on value addition besides traditional routes.”
“It will also encourage other local companies to boost their standards to become internationally recognized businesses,” he told Capital.
“The ‘Wild Blend’, a mix of different Ethiopian coffee varieties, has got high acceptance from global consumers who mainly access it through Alibaba, Amazon and Wal-Mart. So we plan to extend this concept on our upcoming Wild Coffee house in Kenya,” Gezahegn said.
As per the plan, premium coffees from the two countries will be blended for coffee lovers to taste.
“Through the new idea, we will extend the integration of the two sisterly countries,” the CEO said.
He added that his company also targets to promote Ethiopian coffee through a coffee house that will have a premium spot in Dubai, “We are on the final stage to open our branches in Nairobi, and we are looking for a suitable corner at major malls or at the airport.”
Additionally, the company is on the process to expand its branches in Addis “Our upcoming branch located around Bole Medhanialem will be a seven start coffee tasting and coffee based cocktail house.”
“At the new branch, we will offer to test GoriGesha coffee variety, the most expensive coffee in the world,” he concluded.
Gesha variety which has its origins in Ethiopia is now grown by different farmers in the world.