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View from Finca La Mula, Panama Regards, Willem
Willem Boot

Willem Boot is a coffee educator, consultant and geisha coffee producer in Panama. Willem
is CEO of Boot Coffee, a specialized consulting and training company in California, USA. The
training programs of his company can be found at coffeecourses.com and at bootcoffee.com.

in the upgrade of their production sites. The micro-mill FINAL COMMENTS by Author:
program was launched in early 2019 and specifically for this
initiative we incorporated innovative concepts for the design While I’m hunkered down in the comfort of my own
of the drying beds and for the selection of the ecologically home, I’d like to express my deepest respect to the coffee
friendly pulpers. A comprehensive training and start-up producers around the world. For that reason, this article is
program was launched by our brilliant Ethiopian partners dedicated to the millions of coffee farming families and their
from Coqua Consulting. Together with our wonderful col- workers who continue harvesting and producing our pre-
leagues from USAID, who went above and beyond to facilitate cious coffee beans despite all these ongoing challenges.
the micro-mill initiative, we were able to build at least 30 Cheers to you all!
micro-mills in record time. The remaining micro-mills will
come online during the next harvest.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic took all coffee Photo / Willem Boot
producers in Ethiopia by surprise. Fortunately, all coffee had
already been harvested and secured in the country’s coffee
warehouses. I interviewed two coffee producers about the
impact of the pandemic on their livelihoods.
Micro-mill Producers: Impact of the Pandemic

Demek Wana Basha
Bench Sheko zone, Debub bench woreda, Miya kebele

I started learning about coffee farming and coffee pro-
duction as a child. Now I am 32 years old and own a mi-
cro-mill. I have a wife and four kids: Two sons and two
daughters. They all go to school. The coronavirus has affect-
ed our business a lot. We haven’t been able to transport our
coffee and there are hardly any workers to clean and select
the beans. Hand sanitizers, masks, and soap are very expen-
sive. It’s a terrible situation for all of us. I’m praying for a
brighter future.

Nejib Hajji Sadik Abakoyas
Jimma Zone, Gera Worda, Sedi Kebele

I have six children: Five boys and one girl. My wife helps
out in our micro-mill and she does the accounting. So far we
haven’t encountered any problems due to the coronavirus. Photo / Coffee For Peace
We are organizing prevention awareness training and we
protect ourselves. Fortunately, we have been able to face the
challenges by working hard and by keeping faith in our abil-
ity to succeed.

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