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Monday, September 2, 2024

People of Sucafina: Meet Betiel

This time with People of Sucafina, we’re meeting Betiel Medhanie, East Africa Logistics Manager based in Uganda. Betiel is celebrating 10 years with Sucafina and 13 years in the coffee industry. She’s essential to getting your coffees from East Africa onto ships and all the way to the purchasing country warehouses.

 How did you get into coffee?  

I started my coffee journey in 2011 in Uganda after moving there from Eritrea, where I grew up. I started doing a number of jobs, including controlling the inventory of arriving coffee, learning quality control, and negotiating with suppliers for coffee procurement, production coordination, and export planning. It was at that point that coffee became my passion, and I continued learning about the full supply chain of these exciting products.  

In 2014, I joined Sucafina at the new KENYACOF (Sucafina in Kenya) office and then returned to Uganda in 2019. I consider Uganda my home away from home.  

What are your main jobs?  

I manage the East Africa export operation. This means ensuring the execution of coffee exports and supervising the logistics teams as they move coffees from Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya and Burundi to ports and then onto the water. I help improve our operations by creating processes and procedures for export activities and then overseeing their implementation.  A big part of great logistics is building strong relationships with our logistics partners and negotiating better service and rates.  

I also help reduce errors and costs by optimizing resources, closely following our PIs, anticipating risks, and managing them. This includes reducing the risk of theft or damage to coffee by ensuring safety and compliance.  

What inspires you?  

On the logistics team, we face many challenges and I’m motivated by the drive to solve them, learn new things and mentor my coworkers to continuously improve our service.  

What else should we know about you?  

My hobbies are traveling, spending time with my friends and family, reading and outdoor sports. 

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