Ethiopian Startup Hopes To Empower Coffee Farmers With Blockchain Trading Platform – CoffeeTalk

Ethiopian startup WAGA is launching a blockchain-powered platform for the coffee supply chain, aiming to enhance transparency, reduce dependency on intermediaries, and provide financial empowerment to farmers. The initiative was conceptualized by co-founders Emanuel Acho (PhD) and Hana Terefe during their internship at Nethermind, a blockchain research and software engineering firm based in London. The coffee industry, which accounts for nearly one-third of Ethiopia’s export revenue, is predominantly driven by smallholder farmers who cultivate less than half a hectare of land. Despite the crop’s economic significance, these farmers receive only a small fraction of the final retail price due to inefficiencies such as opaque pricing, delayed payments, and a reliance on intermediaries.

WAGA aims to introduce a decentralized model that streamlines trade and enhances financial inclusion through blockchain technology. At the heart of WAGA’s initiative is the concept of tokenizing coffee, allowing every stage of the supply chain to be digitally recorded. By issuing digital tokens representing coffee batches on the Ethereum blockchain, the entire journey from farm to consumer becomes verifiable. Farmers maintain ownership of these tokens, which removes the need for physical storage while protecting them from price fluctuations at the point of sale.

Through smart contracts, farmers can directly sell these tokens to global buyers, with payments processed automatically upon delivery verification. The founders estimate that this approach can lower transaction fees by up to 70% while eliminating delays in payment settlements. Beyond trade facilitation, WAGA plans to integrate decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions, allowing farmers to use tokenized coffee as collateral for loans on blockchain-based lending platforms. This would provide much-needed liquidity to smallholder farmers, many of whom lack access to traditional banking services.

WAGA utilizes the ERC-1155 token standard on Ethereum, enabling seamless creation and transfer of multiple asset types—including both fungible and non-fungible tokens—within a single transaction. The company’s development roadmap includes a testnet deployment by mid-2025, providing an opportunity to refine platform functionalities in a controlled environment before launching on the mainnet. The startup envisions a future where its tokenized coffee model offers a reliable means of asset-backed trade, ensuring that the value of its tokens remains intrinsically linked to physical coffee reserves. As WAGA moves forward with its blockchain-driven initiative, its success could serve as a blueprint for other agricultural supply chains looking to leverage decentralized technology for greater efficiency and financial inclusion.

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