ETHIOPIA AND COFFEE RESURRECT: Gaining Worldwide Attention: Year 2023 Recap ??

Abyssinia, now modern-day Ethiopia, is the birthplace of coffee. The legend goes that around the year 850 CE, a goat herder named Kaldi discovered the now-infamous plant. Ethiopia remains one of the major coffee-producing countries in the world.

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Located in the center of the Horn of East Africa, Ethiopia shares its borders with Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Kenya. Its economy is mainly based on agriculture, with more than 140 types of crops. Ethiopia grows all types of grains, beans, peanuts, tea, nuts, fruits, and vegetables, but coffee accounts for the largest share of its exports.

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Sufi monks exported the product to Yemen before it reached Europe and then other parts of the world. In the case of Ethiopia, coffee appears to have become an important crop by the end of the 16th century and a major source of income only by the end of the 19th century.

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The coffee tree is a tropical shrub; it grows where it is hot! You will find it everywhere between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn; this is called the "Bean Belt." The coffee tree also needs humidity to develop a beautiful, red seed. This is why it is found in hot countries and at altitudes between 600 and 2000 meters.

Ethiopia currently ranks as the world’s 5th-largest coffee producer. The industry employs approximately 15 million people and accounts for 28 percent of the country’s total annual exports. Arabica coffee originated in Ethiopia, and consumers know the country for its Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, and Harar bean varieties. Production in 2017–18 reached 416,580 metric tons, with steady growth occurring nearly every year since 2002. Ethiopia produced 426,000 metric tons of coffee in 2018–19 and exported 239,000 metric tons of it.

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Ethiopia produces Arabica coffee exclusively. If this coffee is one of the most famous in the world, it is for its smoothness and the delicacy of its aroma. Ethiopian coffee is mainly farmed in the west and the Harar region. The appellations are named after the region where the coffee is grown. In the west, we find the regions of Limu, Tepi, Lekempti, Djimmah, Bebeka, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe. Half of the production is cultivated on mountain ranges above 1500 meters. This altitude, 500-year-old craftsmanship, temperate climate, and rich soils provide optimal conditions for coffee.

Global warming has posed a challenge for coffee growing in Ethiopia. As Geo.fr reports, 60% of production areas could become unsuitable for growing coffee trees by the end of the century: "To cope with the effects of global warming, we would have to increase the 32 meters each year, according to the researchers.".

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Coffee beans contain several classes of health-related chemicals, including phenolic compounds, melanoidins, diterpenes, xanthines, and carotenoids. The waste water coming out of the coffee industry has a high concentration of organic pollutants and is very harmful for surrounding water bodies, human health, and aquatic life if discharged directly into the surface waters.

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The processing of coffee generates significant amounts of agricultural waste, ranging from 30 percent to 50 percent of the weight of the total coffee produced. Coffee’s agricultural waste takes up large amounts of land and sits there decaying for months, polluting the area before it’s finally burned by the farmers, adding another environmental damage to its name. On the other side, coffee’s industrial residues and by-products from the roasting process and while coffee is brewed are major urban waste.

Drinking coffee is something widely celebrated, but discussions about the massive amounts of waste coffee production leaves behind are not heard very often. However, the huge amount of residue generated annually in the production and consumption of coffee requires innovation and a waste management plan.

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While coffee is one of the most popularly consumed beverages on the planet, consumers often do not realize that coffee-related waste has a severe impact on both the earth and its atmosphere, from turning soil acidic to releasing greenhouse gases," said Almaw Molla, founder of COFFEE RESURRECT.

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With a deep commitment to environmental sustainability and a passion for harnessing the untapped potential of coffee, our team has revolutionized the industry, establishing COFFEE RESURRECT as a trailblazer in Africa and beyond.

COFFEE RESURRECT is a brand voice representing the Ethiopian coffee story and its coffee producers. It has created an additional income source for small-scale African coffee farmers and has been a global voice in helping small-scale African coffee farmers get a better price for their green coffee beans in the international coffee market.

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Our innovation is here to take the coffee industry by storm and accelerate millions of farmers in Africa and beyond on the way to creating a real difference for our world by sustainably innovating through coffee waste. Our vision is to be a well-known eco-friendly and sustainable solution provider concerning Ethiopia's and African coffee's longevity around the world.

From the very humble beginning of our company in 2021, we received numerous awards and accolades, including the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) Top 100 in the 2021 list from over 100,000 applicants around the world who computed from the early stage startups up to a million dollars in revenue companies.

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We became a Global Startup Awards Africa regional winner in the Founder of the Year category in 2021 and in the spotlight as a Goal 13 candidate for the EUTECH SDG Awards for Climate Action.

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Our innovation and solutions prove themselves and have been identified as the Top 30 finalist in the UEA FoodTech Challenge 2022, the Top 5 food ingredients at the Sustainable Food Awards 2023, and on the winning list of the Sustainable Beauty Awards 2022.

The recent and still fresh exciting news that we were crowned the Best GreenTech African winner of the 2023 category at the Global Startup Awards Africa and meeting Africans from all corners of the continent who are young entrepreneurs and investing in businesses that address very real challenges on the continent has given us a lot of stamina to work so hard towards our mission and shows the impact we envision is worth going forward.

Thanks to our visionary industry leaders and founding members, and to the generosity of friends, family, and the driving force behind COFFEE RESURRECT, Africa's pioneering industrial biotechnology company. Almaw Molla ?? , Seblegenet Aklilu , Ehitemariam Molla , Seifemicheal Molla, PE-WSE, PPSNE have spearheaded the development of an innovative solution that transforms coffee waste into sustainable personal care, nutraceuticals, and food ingredients.

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Our work and accomplishments have been recognized and featured in the world's most trusted magazines and publications, including StartUs Insights Business Intelligence Platform, as one of the top 10 circular economy startups in 2023 and as one of the top 20 circular economy startups that are setting the new standard for eco-conscious innovation in 2024.

Finally, we look forward to further collaboration in 2024! Happy New Year! and Merry Christmas to our team, partners, and like-minded people around the world who have supported us in this journey to make the world a better place for everyone, and so we could give a "second life" to humanity by pioneering disruptive circular and regenerative economic circular models that enable all humans to "live better with less.".

Cheers?? and don’t forget to follow us on Medium, Mastodon, and Reddit for more insights and appealing conversations.