Ejo Heza Overcomes Challenges to Produce Experimental Coffee

March 25, 2026

Kopakama leaders, including leaders of the Ejo Heza women's group met via video conference with Aritsan last week. They reviewed the challenges that lay ahead as they seek to produce experimental coffee processes using cherry from Ejo Heza. The debate included cherry pricing and calculating the final natural coffee premium.

The team confirmed previous success with anaerobic and natural processes and decided to start producing 10 bags of natural coffee for the 2026 season. Customer feedback highly praised the Natural from Mushabati Washing Station, citing flavors like red fruit and red berries.

Thanks to input from Kenni, the volunteer from Japan, the team was able to recognize that current cherry delivery is insufficient for producing the target quantity of natural coffee, necessitating 5,400 kilograms of cherries. A smaller target of only 5 bags, or 2700 kilos, was deemed more achievable.

A debate ensured over how to incentivize Ejo Heza farmers to bring the cherry from their own farms at their homes to the washing station. 2 Rwandan francs per kilogram was deemed too low. No final decision about farmer incentives at reception were made.

Artisan pointed out that natural coffee will earn a premium ranging from 50 cents to $2 per kilogram above the fully washed price of $9.45. Valens Ndereyimana, the managing director, committed to calculating the final cost of production and price to finalize the natural coffee contract.

Everyone is looking forward to hearing the cupping the results of the experiments with Ejo Heza women's coffee when Ruth Ann travels to Rwanda in June. Stay tuned!

Ethiopia 2026 Outlook from Heleanna Georgalis

L: Cher Denny, Blueprint Coffee; R: Heleanna Georgalis

Artisan Coffee Imports is honored to have partnered for 3 years now with Moplaco Trading Co. and its
owner / CEO, Heleanna Georgalis. Heleanna is the second generation owner of MOPLACO and the fourth generation in her family to make a livelihood in coffee. Through hard work and passion for people and coffee, Heleanna has built a reputation of quality and coffee expertise for both the MOPLACO team and herself. 

MOPLACO Trading Co. is short for "Mocca Plantation Company", which makes sense since the company started in 1972 with 1000 ha of land in the heart of the Harrar region of Ethiopia, and Harrar coffee is known for its distinguished Mocca flavor. 

I've come to treasure the annual email Heleanna shares with her customers near the start of our calendar year and at the Ethiopian Christmas-time. I'm grateful that this year Heleanna is allowing me to share her thoughts with Artisan's blog readers via this blogpost. Enjoy!

Jan. 6, 2026

2025 is way behind us in terms of crop and 2026 has soon fully arrived. The past 2 years have been particularly challenging for all of us I believe. Ethiopia, for the first time, achieved a staggering 2.65 billion USD of coffee exports, exporting more than 470T tonnes of coffee, (that is 11 million bags). Ethiopia was known for exporting maximum 6 Million bags, but given the favorable prices, it showed its real potential for export. People are wondering how we could achieve these levels of production but the reality is, that our production has been growing steadily every year but most importantly given the high prices even the dirtiest coffee was exported instead of being consumed locally.

Ethiopia is aiming at 3 billion USD of exports and 600T tonnes of production with tree planting frantically everywhere. Farmers are encouraged because for the first time they see real gains in coffee production. THIS BRINGS GOOD THINGS: Eucalyptus is being uprooted. For the ones that know me, this makes me extremely happy.. 

Local prices of REJECT were similar to the sales of export quality locally. 

2026 is starting with fascinating news that will reshape our coffee world as we know it:

• KDP and JDE Peet's US$16bn mega-merger 
• Luckin is reportedly considering a bid for Blue Bottle
• Coca-Cola wants to sell Costa Coffee.
• EUDR has been delayed hopefully indefinitely
• Brazil weather is improving and so coffee prices have been stabilizing. Everywhere else in the world except Ethiopia.

We must understand that this stems from the experience of last year when farmers rushed to capitalize on the gains they could get. In 2026, coffee prices in the South started at 150 Birr per Kg of red cherry and now at Sidamo Kokose and Bombe prices have reached even 340 Birr p. Kg of red cherry.

The liquidity needed to buy coffee is 3 times as high as last year, sometimes even 4 times. So many of the washing stations and exporters are struggling with the lack of liquidity offered by the banks. 

Our National Bank of Ethiopia has reported losses. Now banks are under strict scrutiny with very stringent laws, additional paper work and requirements. Apparently we have lost 444 billion birr. At least this is not only exporters loosing money but also our Government!!!!

Our digitalizing economy and regularisation of laws imposes new rules and regulations on a daily basis on both export and import. Hence we are facing not only huge penalties in import but also huge delays in clearing anything and huge taxes on all items.  Every process is delayed.

You can think all the above is very good and it is, but it comes at importune times putting a lot of strain on our movements and our facilities.

Coffee harvest in the West, Limu, Djimmah etc. is now over, and in Sheka (location of Moplaco's farm) we have a few days of cherry collection till the harvest is finally over. Flowering has started, which is very strange. Unless the last beans are collected, the flowering will abort and the new crop will be impaired.

In the South, in the highlands we have some 3 weeks of harvest left till coffee harvesting is fully over.

In Sidamo, Bombe, and Shantawene we are now seeing prices never seen before, Guji Kercha, and Uraga are underway with more regular prices but with a huge competition underway from some select exporters and in Gedeb the same.

In Yirgachefe and Kochere harvest is now almost over with some pockets of harvest still remaining.

Average prices requested are around 500 US cents/lb and the Coffee and Tea Authority has imposed significantly high prices as a minimum. The government is expecting high profits from coffee imitating past results. 2026 is a year in which exporters must be careful or there will be a lot of tears shed given the high purchase prices in the local side and the dropping NYC.

People will focus again on the commercial lots of Djimmah and Sidamo Gr-4 and Gr-5.

EUDR drove many people to the edge and the only region not focusing on this has been Harar as it is mainly exported to the Middle East. Crop is significantly lower and is challenging to reach the quality needed.

Container availability seems to be resolved since last year finding a container that was acceptable. However, finding one that was clean and with no holes was challenging.

Luckin Coffee not only contemplates buying Blue Bottle, but has a very lively presence in the market and in Ethiopia now, buying Guji coffee aggressively.

Ethiopian Drama never sees an end and each time we have more creative stories to share. This year's drama is the GOLD RUSH. We are now officialy the EL DORADO of Africa, with literally anyone digging to find Gold Nuggets. Artisanal Mining is booming. If we at Moplaco could afford a Caterpillar excavator, we would be digging too.

In terms of Moplaco:

On each station we will be producing about 2 containers of coffee, each comprised of select microlots of very good quality. Coffee quality is very good this year across the board.

In Sheka we have produced about 3 full containers of special lots, focusing on Honey process that was our best coffee last year with excellent feedback.

We will be buying mixed lots from the West, and this year coffee from Anderacha and Kaffa show excellent potential.

Least but not LAST:

Foreign Banks are entering the market slowly but surely and now Carefour will finally start operations in Ethiopia. Finally I will not have to carry bags full of things from Europe like a wandering gypsy.

For the ones that have LOST LOVED ones, I wish you all a recovery from sadness and optimism for the future.

For the ones that the year has entered optimistically, I wish a continuation.

Heleanna Georgalis

KAIZEN Project Reduces Waste at Artisan HQ

Lean Logistics Team - Takes a Break

The logistics team at Artisan doubled in size in the first quarter, growing from two people, Ruth Ann

and Marie Hucal, to four. We were delighted to add Marcia Higgins and Jonathan Miller to the team. We quickly learned, however, that many of our systems that worked fine when it was two people, no longer worked so well with four. Especially as we worked to get samples out the door in a timely manner, we could tell change was needed. In May 2025 we launched our first KAIZEN project.

"KAIZEN" is a Japanese word that has worked its way into the mainstream vocabulary for anyone

working in manufacturing, anyone who has worked in operations management and a wide circle of others. It means "change for the better" or "continuous improvement" and is pronounced: 

kai·zen /ˈkīz(ə)n,ˈkīˌzen/

IN MAY we started by getting our four logistics team members together - probably for the first time! Ruth Ann presented the definition of Lean and the 12 steps of Kaizen. We tried a fun numbers exercise and found that our team members are 235% faster at circlingn numbers in sequential order when numbers are arranged in order, uniform size, large size and not clear (not blurry). We started to see that different team members have different strengths and weaknesses and that's a good thing!

Our second meeting focused on BRAINSTORMING our chosen process for improvement: Receiving Pre-ship Samples from Origin. To kick off this meeting we had to review key rules for brainstorming:

No bad ideas

Capture everything

Allow time for people to think

Focus on quantity - get LOTS of ideas.

We used Canva for the Brainstorm and the resulting session looked like this:

The brainstorming ends with narrowing the many ideas into a few, and then the team basically votes to choose just 3 or 4 areas for focus. Ours were:

1. A new system for sample storage bins
2. Create a new work station designed and dedicated to sampe preparation
3. Revised labels for all types of sample bags
4. New system for capturing and calculating the pre-ship quantities needed
5. Implementing a KanBan system to minimize the chance we would run out of supplies
6. Creating a centralized sheet for naming our coffees

IN JUNE, the team met while Ruth Ann was in Rwanda. They shared with each other their progress on KAIZEN projects. Each team member received feedback and was able to move forward with their action plan.

Marie welcomes boxes of pre-ship samples.

Finally in AUGUST we could begin the wrap up. It was suprising how each area, whether it was a new sheet for coffee names or a new system for storage bins, brought up long discussions on communication, documentation, and possibities that seemed endless. 

In SEPTEMBER we were able to bring to conclusion each segment of the KAIZEN project to improve the process for Receiving Pre-ship Samples from Origin. Overall, we believe we've cut at least 12% off the time it takes to process a pre-ship sample. But more important than that, we've started to measure the time various tasks take. Once we understand how much time is required, we've become better at finding ways to become more efficient. 

Measuring time for tasks like sample preparation also helps all team members set realistic expectations. Realistic expectations reduces frustration.

The effort to improve processes also clarified the need for written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Now we have written SOPs for tasks that previously created friction and frustration.

The most visible results of our KAIZEN project are 

1. the new sample preparation work-station
2. the new sample storage bin system
3. the KanBan system with it's cards and boards for tracking WHEN something needs to be re-ordered, if it's been ordered and when it's in stock again.

Marcia with the new sample storage system.

In case we have any Japanese readers out there, the hiragana letters are as follows:

 

Proudly showing the new sample prep work station - everyone participated!

Jonathan is one of our KAIZEN champtions!

Slate's Excellent Rebuke of the SCA Take-Over of the Q

Thank you @dailycoffeenews and Roast Magazine for alerting us to a great article by Slate, dated August 25, 2025.

CLICK HERE for the full article

Here are a few of our favorite clips:

We might think of what’s going down like this: The SCA spent a pretty sum to breed a young racehorse  🏇 (let’s call him Cupping Monopoly) from the same pedigree as the world’s fastest horse 🏇 (let’s call him Q-Biscuit). And just as the young buck was about to race the veteran Q-Biscuit for the first time, the SCA purchased Q-Biscuit, then took him behind the barn and shot him. Place your bets! Cupping Monopoly, it turns out, wins the race.😂😂

...

Following the stunning agreement, Marty Pollack, a Q-Grader and co-founder of Torch Coffee, minces no words, likening the SCA to the Mafia [👍👍👍]: “They found out the No. 1 opposition to CVA global domination. It’s Q graders.” Now Q graders either train with the SCA—on a system that erases the specialty coffee community they have long been a part of—or don’t train at all.

...

In its June 2024 outline of the CVA model, the SCA writes, “There can be no calibration in cupping, as there is no objective standard regarding the impression of quality.” But if we are setting standards for tasting coffee, why would we pursue objectivity over quality? I want to drink good coffee, not objective coffee. Sadly, judging by the lack of community engagement the CQI pursued during its agreement with the SCA, it no longer believes in sharing a common understanding of what’s good either.

...

Further comment from me, "Why has the SCA board still not managed to fire Executive Director Yannis Apostolopoulos??"

See our related blogpost, dated June 1, 2025: CVA-Gate: Unnecessary Takeover...

Team-building at Artisan Coffee Imports

 Gallery of photos from our team-building day on July 31, 2025.

We were at the University of Michigan's Adventure Leadership center in Ann Arbor, Michigan for fun in the sun and, for some of our members, meeting each other for the first time!

Our UofM facilitators led us through ice-breaker games and then challenge activities such as moving a ball quickly when everyone must touch it. Then we had to sort outdoor toys when the "organizers" can't see the toys and there's no instruction on what "sorted" means. The most fun was when one group had to explain the instructions to group 2, and group 2 would get penalized for making mistakes.

Concluding the day with a circle of appreciation for each person's skills was almost as nice as the tasty lunch which started our event!

Alice Nshuti - update on a young Rwandan's coffee career

 

Alice showing a bag of Sandrew roasted
coffee from within her cafe - Mulax.

One of our greatest joys as an importer is to see the impact we have on the lives of young coffee professionals in places like Rwanda. 

Artisan Coffee Imports Internship

Alice Nshuti was first selected to work as an Artisan intern in 2021. She started in October 2021 with an intense 6-week coffee professional training at Ikawa House in Rwanda's capital city, Kigali. Then, throughout 2022, she worked as an assistant high up in the mountains of Gakenke with one of Artisan's supplier women's groups, the Rambagirakawa women.

Business Data Internship 

At the beginning of 2023, it was time to move into a more professional role. She was hired as Dukundekawa Musasa's Business Data Intern -- a position funded by Root Capital. While this was a paid position, the wages were so low, Alice would not be able to cover basic monthly expenses without support. Artisan therefore funded a "career-starter" subsidy for Alice's 6 months in the Business Data intern position.

Alice spent the next half year to a year exploring her job opportunities. She had a college degree in Agribusiness, almost 2 years' experience working at a coffee cooperative and a burning passion to work in the coffee industry. Unfortunately, no positions in Rwanda's coffee industry were opening up for her. She applied for jobs outside of the coffee industry, but she could tell her heart was not into it.

Business Data Intern

Starting Her Own Brand of Roasted Beans

In her own words she told me, "one day in 2024 I asked myself, why don't you just start your own small coffee business, no matter how small? It will make you happy and you will gain experience." So she did! She used what she knew, including her networks of people in coffee and friends with entrepreneurial ideas to take the first steps of making a business plan. 

She decided she would procure green coffee beans using her skills in cupping to select the best ones. She found a toll-roaster in Kigali who had good references from others selling roasted coffee. This roaster also allows Alice to supervise him / work with him each time he roasts her beans. This way Alice can be sure she is getting the type of roast her customers have requested. She's most excited when she wins a new wholesale customer who tastes her roasted coffee next to the brand they've been buying and they say, "wow! I didn't know coffee could taste that good!"

Originally the brand name for her roasted beans was Inshuti @inshuti_coffee . But when she started the trademark process, she learned that name was taken. Now she's changed the name of her roasted beans to Sandrew, which is a blend of her parents' first names: Sarah and Andrew.

Cafes in Kigali

Cafes in a busy central areas of Kigali are popping up everywhere. They're attracting consumers who enjoy the green plants lining the interior, the cozy ambience and a generally light-soaked space. One of Alice's customers serves fresh-brewed Sandrew coffee, craft beers and delicious bites. They are open 24 hours!

As if that's not enough to keep her busy, Alice also travels with Ruth Ann during her trips to cooperatives in Rwanda as a translator. After several years of supporting Artisan on one or two week trips, and after accumulating four years of cumulative coffee experience, Alice was ready to step into a new role at Artisan - that of Export Logistics Coordinator based in Kigali.

Inside Mulax Cafe

Export Logistics Coordinator - Rwanda

Since mid-July this year, Alice has been going up the steep learning curve of understanding a myriad of coffee export details. Artisan has special demands related to microlots, the women's groups and paying premiums, quality control of our containers and managing the risks loading day and international shipping in general. On top of these unique parts of Artisan's business, Alice has been learning the basics of pre-ship samples for customers and for NAEB, export taxes, ICO documents, weight notes and phytosanitary certificates. Add to this the constant effort to ensure quality of the coffee from the day it arrives at the NAEB warehouse. She's met the staff who work for our cooperatives at NAEB, our freight forwarder and our three exporters in Kigali. She carefully observed the unloading, moving and storage conditions of all of the microlots as they wait for shipment day.

It's a lot! Alice seems energized, however, by the challenge. She comments, "I love learning and I love learning more about coffee the most!"

Current role with Artisan: Export Logistics Coordinator

Alice was an Ikawa House "coffee professional" student in 2021.

Graduation day with Ikawa House instructors, long-time Q Graders and international cupping judges, Uzziel Habimana and Laetitia Mukandahiro.

Alice's one year internship as an Artisan Coffee Imports intern, and traveling with Ruth as a translator has increased her range of of experiences in coffee professions.

Alice especially enjoys working with and learning from the female farmers. Her 2021 internship focused on supporting projects of the Rambagirakawa women.

Kungahara women: their accomplishments and challenges

Today we visited the Kungahara women's group and their parent cooperative, Bwishaza. The main objective is to cup the coffees and select the lots for our customers. Relationship building and strengthening is another key objective of these trips. A third objective is to "Go to Gemba". This is a phrase from Lean Operational Management theory, that managers need to go to the place where the activity is happening, and go there often. Otherwise, the manager doesn't really know what is happening and makes poor decisions.

Relationship Building: happens in many ways. One of the sweetest on this day was a serendipitous meet-up with 3 of the Kungahara women while I and my translator, Bridget VUGUZIGA, were driving to the cooperative. We saw three women walking along the road, going the same direction we were going and stopped to give them a ride. After a few minutes, we asked where they were going and explained we were going to Bwishaza cooperative. Then one of them asked, "Are you Ruth?". My translator helped me reply with surprise, "well, yes! How did you know my name?"

Claire Mukakaruta, Marie Josee Nyirasafari, and Rose Nyiransekuye proceeded to explain that they are Kungahara farmers and therefore they have heard a lot about Ruth and how Artisan's customers support their group by paying a few cents per kilogram for the annual women's premium. I asked about how they feel about the coffee harvest this year. They said "it's good, but it's not just that the cherry price is high this year. We appreciate the opportunity to come together as women. We share our concerns and we help each other."

Kungahara Accomplishment - Land for Mulching Grasses

Last year the women leading Kungahara decided to buy more land that is next to their community coffee plot so that they could grow the grasses used for mulching.  The premium that Artisan paid helped them make the down payment for that land. They borrowed the rest of the money needed from the parent cooperative.

I'm confident from past experience with Kungahara that they'll pay down that loan from the parent cooperative and doing more exciting projects like this one. They are great about sharing what they do and communicating effectively.

Kungahara Challenge - Cupping lab destroyed to make room for the road

By "Going to Gemba" one learns what is really going on. I learned, for example, that the cooperative's

beautiful cupping lab had been destroyed to make room for the road improvements. The cupping lab was built for them in 2017 by a Korean non-profit and fully equipped with sample roasters, grinders, cookers, a sink, a large cupping table, lots of cups, spoons, etc. This was a shock. The road improvements are desperately needed, but Samuel, the cooperative's manager, was clearly pained as he explained the compensation payment from the government was about $1000 short of what they would need to replace the cupping lab. As I walked around and saw the piles of bricks, metal roofing and metal window frames that were the cupping lab, I was concerned. 

Cupping Continues - in the warehouse among the stacks of coffee

True to my past experiences of Rwandan persistence, a little thing like a crushed cupping lab does not stop them. They had set up a wonderful place to cup in the middle of their small coffee warehouse. We proceeded to cup many wonderful coffees while among the stacks of parchment freshly brought from the tables just steps away from the door.