METAD’s Mission

METAD’s mission is clear, “From seed-to-cup, we work hard to produce, process and export premium Ethiopian coffees to the world. We use sustainable and eco-friendly cultivation and processing methods coupled with an unprecedented level of attention to quality control. We strive to operate our company on a basis of sustainable and profitable growth, increasing value for our investors, and prosperity for our workers and their families.”

The Story of METAD

METAD is a family owned and operated establishment. It is like no other farm, nor is Aman, it’s CEO and my dear friend, like no other farmer in the world. This is in part due to Aman’s incredible story.

It Started with a Muluemebet Emiru

The METAD story begins with his grandmother, Muluemebet Emiru, who became Africa’s first female pilot in 1934. After World War II, she was awarded farmland, lush with wild coffee trees, in the Harar and Sidamo regions. With his grandfather's help, she transformed the Harar farmland into a private coffee estate, forever forging the family's deep connection to the land and coffee cultivation.

The Prodigal Grandson

Generations later, the prodigal son, Aman Adinew, returned to Ethiopia to carry on his family's legacy. As towering of a man in stature and accomplishments as Aman is, his humble nature would never tell of his story with the pride it deserves. As a good friend, I give myself permission to tell it because I have watched his journey with a front row seat and could not be more proud of what he has accomplished in changing thousands of lives in coffee growing regions in Ethiopia.

After spending over 30 years in the United States in college and executive leadership roles in fortune 500 companies, Aman Adinew returned to Ethiopia to play a role in the nation's agricultural transformation agenda. This led him to become the COO of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). A new initiative whose mission was simple; to connect buyers and sellers of all commodities with transparency, efficiency and fairness. Since coffee was Ethiopia’s leading contributor to GDP as a commodity, it was natural that Aman’s history naturally fell on his table. And so in 2008, our relationship began.

How I Met Aman

I met Aman while I was working as the leader of mapping traceability supply chains for Starbucks Coffee, in 2008. What could’ve been a contentious collision over commodity coffee became a celebration of coffee’s differentiation. Aman understood that traceability was a key ingredient to the mission of the ECX. It is therefore why he led the Direct Trade Center (DTC) floor window, the first of its kind in any global commodity exchange platform, that sparked the process of integrating traceability in the entire exchange.

How METAD came to be

Fast forward four years, METAD was born. Through Aman’s leadership, METAD has strengthened the local community with employment opportunities including a workforce that is over seventy percent women, educational opportunities including university scholarships and sponsorship for a state-of-the-art elementary school with more than 700 students, and healthcare for employees. METAD was also first to partner with Grounds for Health in Ethiopia to implement a successful cervical cancer screening program for women within the coffee growing communities. METAD has an expanding out-grower program designed to provide technical assistance, share modern farming equipment, and offer certification programs for more than 6,500 local farmers who are paid premiums for their cherry and second payments after coffee is sold. Quality and certification premiums have also helped METAD build roads and community centers. METAD has the first and only private state-of-the-art SCAA certified coffee quality control lab on the African continent used to train both domestic and international coffee professionals.