About Poor Farmer
Poor Farmer is an independent blog on the economics and politics of Ethiopian coffee. Since 2006 it has put one question to every policy, agreement and record announced in the coffee trade: what reaches the people who grow the coffee.
The blog began with the trademark dispute between Ethiopia and Starbucks, which it documented as the dispute unfolded, through the licensing agreement and its aftermath. It went on to follow the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange from its launch, the Ethiopian Fine Coffee Trademarking and Licensing Initiative, and the export rules that shape prices at the farm gate. Alongside original commentary, it republishes coffee news and archival reporting that place today's trade in its longer history.
Over the years, the blog's reporting has been cited in academic studies and policy research on the coffee trade.
The 2026 series A Record Is Not Enough set Ethiopia's record coffee export earnings against the absence of any published account of what growers received. That work continues in the working paper Beyond the Coffee Record and on Coffee Monitor, which tracks which coffee figures are published, by whom, and on what method.
About the author
Wondwossen Mezlekia is an independent writer based in Seattle, Washington. He started Poor Farmer in 2006, and his early investigations and commentary on Ethiopian coffee appeared on Ethiopian Review and Ethiomedia; he also appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss the Starbucks-Ethiopia dispute. In the years since, he built a career in financial services in operational risk and fraud prevention, which now shapes the accounting lens of his coffee research. He writes as an independent observer with no commercial interest in the coffee trade.
Selected work, 2026
| Show the Chain, Not a Mere System Before the EU Rule BitesCommentary, Addis Fortune | Oct 2026 |
| A Fifth Measure for the Export ScorecardLetter to the editor, Addis Fortune | Aug 2026 |
| Ethiopia Counts Coffee at the Wrong EndEssay, African Arguments | Aug 2026 |
| Europe Needs the Plot, Ethiopia Needs the PriceCommentary, Addis Fortune | Aug 2026 |
| Beyond the Coffee RecordWorking paper, SSRN | Jul 2026 |
| The Missing Half of Ethiopia's Coffee PlanCommentary, Addis Fortune | Jul 2026 |
| A Record Is Not EnoughSix-part series, Poor Farmer | Jun 2026 |
| Coffee MonitorIndependent evidence platform and Global Coffee Observatory | 2026 |
Contact and profiles
| poorfarmer@gmail.com | |
| X | @WonMez |
| X (Coffee Monitor) | @coffeemonitor |
| Research | coffeemonitor.com |
| Professional portfolio | enderassey.com |