SCFCU is a union, made up of 47 cooperatives representing over 87,000 farmers (I made a mistake in my earlier blog entry when I said they represented 9,000 farmers) and is the second largest coffee producer in Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s largest export is coffee so it’s fair to say that SCFCU has a direct influence on a large portion of the country’s population.

In addition, next week two TransFair employees from the US will be visiting Ethiopia and I will be accompanying them to visit a few of the coffee farmers in the south. Fun fun. After that, I have about a week left to tie-up loose ends and finish up my work before spending some time traveling and exploring the culture in greater depth.

In terms of work, I will be helping the SCFCU mainly with fair trade certification issues. SCFCU is a union of 47 individual co-ops representing about 9,000 farmers in the southern area of Ethiopia called Sidama.

Please describe what the organization/company you work with does, how it is set up and where it is located?
I worked with Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU) which is a coffee farming union setup by the Ethiopian government in 2001 to organize and represent 47 cooperatives and 87,000 small farmers. Our main office is located [...]