Empowering Women at Origin: Ethiopia

By Lauren Cropper, Junior Trader & Certifications Manager, with Caitlin McCarthy-Garcia, Trader

Article Summary:

Royal Coffee highlights two women-led Ethiopian exporters, Ephtah and Dumerso, that are transforming the country’s coffee industry through equity, quality, and community impact. Ephtah, founded by Wubit Bekele, partners with 29 female farmers, ensures direct payment and financial independence, and operates social programs including daycares, education access, and income diversification. Dumerso, a Certified Organic Yirgacheffe producer, integrates farming, processing, and sourcing while supporting over 200 farmers, 40 of them women, and running community initiatives like a daycare, library, and clinic. For coffee roasters, buying from these producers means investing in top-quality, traceable coffees that directly fund women’s empowerment and community development in Ethiopia.

Empowering Women at Origin: Ethiopia

Lauren’s Note:

On a recent trip to Ethiopia, meeting two extraordinary women felt like witnessing a revolution in real time. Various visits to cupping labs across Addis gave me the opportunity to meet the people behind some of our most outstanding Ethiopian coffees.Typically, this meant meeting with an all-male team of execs and traders and their often all-female quality control team running the cupping lab. In contrast, partners Dumerso and Ephtah are fully operated by all women teams.

As you’ll read below, there is no shortage of barriers to entrepreneurship for women in Ethiopia. Like everywhere else, women’s rights are hard-fought and difficult to maintain. In my conversations with Wubit, they recognized that they were creating a shift and are fearless in doing so. What struck me was not only are they strong, courageous, resilient and all the other adjectives we use to describe pioneering women, but quite unbothered. They seemed to find it almost comical that anyone would question their roles in business while absolutely disrupting the coffee export scene. We shared some laughs about some of the criticism they’ve received because regrettably, it’s a shared experience among women in our industry.

In the coming seasons, I hope to see more women emerge as business owners in the country’s largest export industry. Change may be slow but it’s here. At Royal, I feel lucky to support these two organizations who exemplify this growing wave of women-led, socially focused, and quality-driven producers that are shaping the future of Ethiopian coffee.

Junior Trader Lauren Cropper in Ethiopia, 2025.

Ephtah: Redefining Coffee Through Women’s Empowerment

Founded by Wubit Bekele, Ephtah is a coffee exporter and a purpose-driven enterprise rooted in equity. After a decade in coffee, Wubit launched Ephtah in 2021 and began operations in 2022 with a focus on the high-end of the specialty coffee market. Today, 90% of Ephtah’s coffees are Grade 1 and meticulously processed using natural, honey, anaerobic, and slow-dried methods.

Wubit Bekele, a founder of Ephtah Coffee

What makes Ephtah exceptional isn’t just the quality, it’s their commitment. The team works directly with 29 female farmers and ensures each has a personal bank account for direct payment. They regularly meet with each woman, and even host families in Addis Ababa to foster transparency and trust. It’s a model built on mutual respect and a refusal to let the women doing the labor go unseen or uncompensated.

Ephtah’s Social Impact Programs:

• Two community daycares serving 85 children
• Ama (Mother) Commitment Initiative – a growing NGO supporting women-led enterprises
• Off-season income generation: handicrafts, poultry, beekeeping
• Education access efforts: improving routes to school in rural Gedeb

Wubit pre-sells most of Ephtah’s coffee to trusted European and UK buyers, ensuring financial security for her producers. With transparency, traceability, and impact at its core, Ephtah is setting a new bar for what ethical coffee sourcing can look like.

Dumerso: Vertical Integration, Organic Quality, Community Care

Dumerso is a vertically integrated, woman-led business operating in Yirgacheffe. The owners operate an 80-hectare coffee farm and washing station under the name Dumerso, while also sourcing cherry from surrounding communities in Sidama and Guji.

Certified Organic and known for exceptional washed coffees, Dumerso has been a Royal Coffee partner since 2017. But their commitment goes far beyond quality. Dumerso has built a library, a community health clinic, and a daycare center to support local families.

Among the 200+ farmers they work with, over 40 are women. During harvest, women make up an estimated 90% of the cherry-picking workforce. While farmland ownership remains a structural barrier for many women in Ethiopia, Dumerso helps close the gap by offering meaningful employment and upward mobility.

Women sorting coffee in Dumerso, Ethiopia

Dumerso’s Social Programs:

• On-site daycare during harvest
• Literacy support via a community library
• Healthcare access through a local clinic

This is what sustainable sourcing looks like: delivering traceable, certified coffees while investing in the long-term wellbeing of the people who make it possible.

Why It Should Matter to Roasters

When you buy coffee from Ephtah and Dumerso, you’re getting incredible coffees and you’re helping fund daycares, clinics, and entrepreneurial women. These partnerships represent the future of specialty: traceable, ethical, and resilience-focused. We’re proud to partner with producers building systems of long-term change.

Explore our fresh crop Ethiopia here.