From No-name to Household Brand: The Rise of Jimma Coffee in the Korean Market

From No-name to Household Brand: The Rise of Jimma Coffee in the Korean Market

I would like to share with you an exciting journey of a farmer from being a ‘no brand’ producer to becoming the owner of a prominent brand in his sector.

As Ethiopian Airlines Country representatives, one of our missions is to facilitate business and economic integration between Ethiopia and the country we are based in. So, we are always looking for opportunities to strengthen business links such as those between producers from homeland and importers from foreign countries.

Recently, I had the honor to contribute to the success of one of such ventures. It all started when received a call from Kume Chibsa, CEO of Bunakoo, a local firm who facilitates direct trade between farmers and international importers. We talked about how we could make it easier for Jimma coffee farmers to expand their markets to Korean coffee importers.

The whole discussion was impressive. I immediately realized how great of an opportunity it was. So , I quickly moved to identifying possible Korean partners who might have an interest in joining hands with us.

It turned out we need to put an extra effort into this step: our first engagement with coffee importers was fruitless, as Jimma coffee was considered, in the Korean market, to be a standard commercial coffee, and not a specialty coffee as it really is.

We then focused on engaging the importers to change the negative narrative about Jimma coffee. Bunakoo’s role was key, as they consistently advocated a new business model, with managed service that guaranteed quality to regain trust in specialty coffee of Jimma.

Next, we invited one of Korea’s most prominent importers, who in collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines joined a coffee farm tour in Jimma area arranged by Bunakoo.

It made all the difference: the tour was an eye opener for the importer. By visiting the real source of the coffee and witnessing the entire value chain, he acquired first-hand high-quality information, leading him to reevaluate Jimma Coffee, what happened after discussions with some farmers.

It was only then that the importer started an extremely rigorous examination process to certify whether the Jimma coffee could be acceptable as specialty coffee in the Korean market. The first step was to deliver samples to a group of Korean buyers, that was rapidly followed by encouraging feedback and clear interest in buying the coffee.

As per the feedback from the buyers, the importer handpicked coffee from one of the local producers, named ‘AWOL’, who happened to be a prominent producer of Jimma coffee as well as an exporter of coffee to Korea.

For farmers like Awol, getting access to premium global markets was a daydream that no one could imagine. Some of the farmers in Jimma were quitting coffee production due to market issues. But thanks to the visit of the prominent Korean coffee importer, new hope was given to them. This has dramatically changed the perception of Korean importers towards Jimma coffee. It no longer is a commercial coffee by Korean buyers - instead, it is now considered a premium specialty coffee in one of the highest valued coffee markets in the world, Korea.

The first 20 Tons of coffee were exported to Korea from a local farmer – AWOL - and the coffee was processed and named after the farmer himself. This has left a profound effect among coffee producers back home. We finally managed to upgrade the brand perception of Jimma coffee in the Korean market towards a premium one, as deserved. And today, Ethiopian specialty Jimma Awol Blending coffee is available in local Korean market.

This interesting story of a dramatic narrative change of brand perception of a local brand is a result of hard working and consistency of the farmers, Bunakoo ’s innovative business model, branding and market linkage by Ethiopian Airlines as well risk taking and trust of Cobeans. The whole process required collaboration, intensive follow-up, patience and dedication among the concerned stakeholders. We hope we can contribute to more stories like this in the future.

It is indeed a feat worth celebrating!??

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