ETHIOPIA SUKE QUTO WEYINI

Suke Kuto was founded in 2005 by Tesfaye Bekele with just five hectares of coffee planted beneath an intact forest canopy. From the beginning the idea was simple and deliberate. Coffee should grow as part of a living ecosystem and not in opposition to it. Today the farm spans 221 hectares while a further 171 smallholder farmers bring their cherries to Suke Kuto for processing. This extends the philosophy well beyond the estate itself.

After a bushfire swept through the area Tesfaye responded by rebuilding with intention. Coffee seedlings and shade tree seeds were distributed to neighbouring farmers supporting the slow regeneration of the forest and restoring balance to the landscape. Soil health remains central to the work here. Organic mulch made from forest leaf litter shade tree trimmings coffee prunings and recycled coffee pulp returns nutrients back to the land and sustains the trees naturally.

A dedicated nursery now anchors the farm where young coffee plants are raised from seed before returning to the field. It is a near closed loop. Seedlings become trees. Trees become pulp and prunings. These by products return as mulch to feed the next cycle. Today Suke Kuto is widely regarded as one of Ethiopia’s finest coffee producers known for coffees grown entirely to organic and Rainforest Alliance standards. Quietly precise deeply rooted and built to last.