Foundational Partner

Agaro

Agaro is a town located in the Jimma Zone of southwestern Ethiopia, in close proximity to forests that are credited as the birthplace of arabica coffee itself. Clustered around Agaro town are scores of washing stations where local smallholder farmers deliver their freshly harvested coffee for processing. Passenger has purchased coffees grown by Agaro farmers since 2016.

Passenger's core partner in the region is Addis Exporter, a family-owned enterprise with over 50 years of experience in the Ethiopian coffee industry. The company is led by Mike Mamo, who carries on the tradition of his father, the founder of Addis Exporter in 1972. In addition to offering coffee sourcing, quality control, dry milling, export, and logistics management services to its international clients from its offices in Addis Ababa, Addis Exporter owns and operates two washing stations, Telila and Atoma, not far from Agaro. Since 2024, all of Passenger's Foundational purchases in the region have been produced by Mike and his team at one of these stations.

Addis Exporter views specialty coffee production as a promising path to improved livelihoods for Ethiopian coffee farmers. In addition to paying high prices for the coffee that they purchase and process, they place a large emphasis on the health of the communities they work with through ongoing investment in social projects such as building schools, constructing roads, and improving community access to clean water.