Two and a half hours' drive north-west of Antananarivo lies a farming village among hills that rivers have shaped over millennia. It is called Fiadanana, in Malagasy: place of peace.

Here, since 2023, together with Avotra Rabearisoa — everyone calls him Avo — we are building a coffee plantation: 79 hectares, planted from scratch. Literally: no existing plants, no infrastructure, no shortcuts. Just land, a plan and the willingness to wait for years — we expect the first harvest around 2028.

Golden Farm, Guji, Äthiopien: junge Kaffeesetzlinge in der Baumschule

Why would anyone do such a thing?

Because it is the only way to truly think a coffee through from the beginning: soil, varieties, shade trees, water, all biodynamic, all from the very first hour. And because some things demand a long breath. In Madagascar, a tree stands for this: the baobab, in Malagasy Reniala, “mother of the forest”. It grows slowly, stands for centuries, and outlives whoever plants it.

We named our coffee machine after it. The plantation lives by its principle.

Fiadanana: Avos Bruder auf der Plantage

Rooted in the community

Fiadanana is part of a bigger idea: in the same country, together with Madavin, we have been reforesting endemic forest near Antoetra since 2020 — around 1'950 hectares by 2025. What has disappeared does not come back on its own. It has to be planted.

The forest does not know our names. We plant it anyway.

Reforestation in Madagascar

A plantation in the making

There is no coffee from Fiadanana yet: we expect the first harvest around 2028. Until then we write here, season by season. The empty years are already there too: they are part of the story.

  1. 2023

    The planting

    79 hectares, from scratch: soil prepared, shade trees and the first coffee seedlings planted. [Details/Bild von Avo]

  2. 2024

    [Meilenstein Saison 2024]

    [Avo: was hat die erste volle Saison gebracht — Anwuchs, Rückschläge, Zahlen]

  3. 2025

    [Meilenstein Saison 2025]

    [Avo: Stand Ende Saison]

  4. 2026

    Season 3 of 6, in progress

    [laufender Eintrag]

  5. 2027

    The last year of waiting — not yet written

  6. 2028

    The first harvest, expected

    The moment all of this is for.

The same hill, every year. One fixed viewpoint, one photo per season — that is how you watch a plantation grow.

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