Suke Coffee comes to us from 2 Ethiopian superstars - one in athletics and one in coffee farming. Abdella Nabi Galgiyo started in coffee in 1982 as a small-scale trader of coffee and other commodities. He soon upgraded his business to move goods between the large lake town of Hawassa and the communities within the Bale Forest, later starting a small cooperative to run a dry mill and move larger volumes of coffee, which he began to brand as Suke Coffee. After much success, Abdella started his own farm in 2018, and in 2019 he achieved his first harvest. In 2020 he processed his first farm-lot for export for Crop to Cup.
Abdella's coffee comes to us via another story of startup success, this time on the running track. Ibrahim Jeilan was born in a coffee trading family operating in the areas of Sidamo, Guji and the Bale Forest (where he met Abdella). In his early age Ibrahim would help his family move coffee from their home to market on shoulder and on horseback, but his father was never able to fulfill his dream of becoming a large coffee trader. Ibrahim says that he focused on fulfilling this dream for his father, and built up his physical endurance by continual travel on foot, from market to market trading coffee. In school, his teachers began to notice his endurance and pushed him to take up athletics. He soon rose to global prominence on the track and in long distance running events, including winning a world championship in the 10,000 meters. After much success around the world, Ibrahim once again returned to Bale to fulfill his fathers' dreams of coffee trading.