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Kerchanshe Trading PLC
Kerchanshe is Ethiopia's largest coffee exporter, buying coffee from small farmers and selling it to buyers around the world.
Kerchanshe is Ethiopia's biggest coffee company. It buys coffee cherries from hundreds of thousands of small farmers, processes them into green beans, and sells those beans to roasters and traders abroad. Coffee is Ethiopia's most famous export, and Kerchanshe sits right in the middle of that trade.
The company runs its own farms and washing stations, where freshly picked cherries are cleaned and dried. That matters because how coffee is processed in the first few days decides much of its flavor and price. Kerchanshe owns dozens of these stations across Ethiopia's coffee regions, so it controls quality from the tree to the export bag. It sells to international buyers, mostly in Europe, Asia, and North America, who want Ethiopian beans with traceable origins. The business model is simple: buy from smallholders, add value through processing, and export at a markup. Kerchanshe's scale gives it an edge. Most Ethiopian coffee comes from tiny family plots, and few companies have the reach to collect from so many farmers and still meet foreign buyers' quality standards. The company was founded by Israel Degfa, who built it from a small trading operation into the country's leading exporter.
The risks are real. Coffee prices swing wildly, weather and disease hit harvests, and Ethiopia's foreign exchange shortages and conflict have made exporting harder in recent years. Still, Kerchanshe remains the dominant player in a crop that defines Ethiopia's economy, and its size and processing network keep it at the center of the global specialty coffee trade.
Saved answer · last researched 10 Nov 2026