Gedeo, or Yirgacheffe, is considered to be a place of pilgrimage for specialty coffee buyers. The often bright and pointy acidic floral coffees are a trademark for this small yet famous region. Once you enter Yirgacheffe, through the town of Dilla, you find the Bule woreda; the home of Ato. Bekele Legay.

Bekele is a Gedeo-smallholder with a 10-hectare forest-farm. His coffee trees enjoy the protection of
Avocado, Enset, and other large indigenous forest trees. Bekele cultivates coffee trees from the
Dega and Kurume varieties; both popular and ancient Ethiopian varieties. Bekele has installed drying beds within his farm to efficiently dry cherries that come straight from the tree.

Bekele, born and bred within a coffee family, started his own farm in 1990. He supplied his coffee via the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union. Fast forward to the reform of the EXC, some 28 years later; he finally had the opportunity to sell his coffee directly to buyers, instead of via the
Exchange. Bekele found a reliable exporter, Mr. Solomon Worku from SMS Plc., and has enjoyed working with him ever since.

Bekele is the father of 6 children and wishes them to continue the coffee farm legacy of the Legay’s.