About Bette Buna

A Dutch-Ethiopian coffee farmers’ family. Growing, producing and trading. How does that work? Read more in here about how our grandparents laid the principles of Bette Buna nearly a century ago.

Or learn more about our sustainability approach in here. Curious who is part of our team? Meet us in Ethiopia at the farm or just contact us! 

How it all started with one cup of coffee.

On an early Wednesday morning in 2019, while the sun was rising at the horizon of his small farmland in Taferi Kela, the old Syoum made his regular morning walk joined by his grandson Dawit. Passing a diversity of fruit trees, flowers and old coffee trees, Syoums’ thoughts went back to nearly a century ago, the moment when he arrived for that very first day in this area, with no possession or any future perspective.

“You know, I did not have anything when I arrived here after those 600km by foot. Anything, except my faith in God”, Syoum explained for Dawit. With his sense of humor, Syoum added: “But, there was one woman who made it all go away by just one cup of coffee. That was your grandmother. Her sense of humor, and strong vision on the development in this village. I am still the lucky one.”.

It was in that year that Emame and Syoum got married and planted their first coffee infants in the land of Taferi Kela, Sidamo. They had one mission. Building a safe village, that develops economically and socially. Where everybody is and feels part of a safe community. A place like home. With and through coffee.

Almost one century later

It was not long after that walk that the old Syoum passed away at the age of 108 years. Over the years they’ve build a small coffee farm and took an important position in the community. But like many small farmers also the family Syoum faced big economical worries in sustaining their lives. With the death of the old Syoum, the small coffee farm and their family mission was on risk. With no children of Syoum and Emame able to take over and make a living of the small farm, plans for selling the land came in.

The purpose of their grandparents, their devoted community in the desire for development and the idea of a forced ‘giving up’, touched grandchildren Dawit and his wife Hester deep in their hearts. With an entrepreneurial background in both Ethiopia as Europe, Dawit and Hester sat with their grandmother. Strong as ever she visualized her wish to create a true home about coffee and opportunities, for all her coffee community members. She named it Bette Buna.

In 2020 Dawit, Hester and their two daughters packed their bags, learned everything about coffee and started Bette Buna. 

Today's

Bette Buna

Today Bette Buna has farms and stations in several Ethiopian coffee regions. In addition we work with committed small farmers and estates. We are vertical integrated, which means grow, process and sell our coffee directly to our customers, with scalable sustainable impact in Ethiopian coffee communities. 

With an office in Ethiopia and the Netherlands we serve our customers by global offerings and we offer our coffee on spot in Europe. But above all, we create equal opportunities for development together with our customers.

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