Yonas Ademassu, married with two children, hails from the small hamlet of Jiga, Gojam Zone of Amhara Regional State.

His early childhood was spent in the rocky lowlands of southern Gojam helping out his farming family with chores, attending an elementary school in Jiga and walking about 14Km each way to go to the nearest high school in Fenote Selam.

He moved to Addis Abeba to join his brother where he completed his high school education while also working at a grain mill operated by his brother. Yonas spent all of his free time helping in his brother’s mill business.

He next landed in Bulgaria in 1988 with a scholarship and in a few years he moved and settled in London where he met his wife.

With the support of African Educational Trust, he achieved his BA degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and followed with an MSC in Business Information Technology.

In 2004, Yonas passed the prestigious Financial Risk Management examination and became a fully certified financial risk manager at the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Following completion of his education, Yonas embarked on a finance career in London’s investment banking sector. Starting with Misys Group, he moved on to BNP Paribas and JP Morgan before he became a vice president of Credit Suisse.

Yonas’s life took a completely new turn on 2014 when he came across United States-grown teff in one of London’s health food stores.  He was stunned to learn that it wasn’t the Ethiopian teffhe hoped but a commercially cultivated teff variety that was about to conquer London’s growing health food sector.

"From that moment on the seed for the company, Lovegrass Ethiopia, was planted in my head," Yonas said. “I found it impossible to reconnect and focus on my banking job.”

His mind wandered back to his childhood when he spent days helping his family on their small tefffarm. He felt the soothing morning dew of his childhood on his bare feet again.

He felt compelled to bring the story of Ethiopian teffto the world, to tell the journey of the Ethiopian farmer who toiled the land for millennia and harvested this tiny grain year after year, and now to discover that the market is being taken over by others.

Teff, EragrostisTefor Williams Lovegrass, is a tiny seed native to Ethiopia.

It is believed to be the most ancient grain that originated between 4000 BC and 1000 BC. For thousands of years, teff has been the main ingredient of injera, the staple food that every Ethiopian depends on.

Teffgrain and flour is full of nutrition and naturally gluten-free (unlike wheat, barley or rye). Gluten is suspected of causing celiac disease, an immune reaction that creates inflammation and damages the small intestine's lining, leading to sometimes serious medical complications.

It is also a source of easily digestible proteins and various trace elements such as calcium and magnesium. Teffis known to improve heart problems, assist in weight loss, support strong bones and generally provide a tonic to the immune systems.

As a large population of the country depend on this grain, the nation's 43-year old gene bank, Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, has routinely been conducting nutritional and other analyses on the grain, according to Tamene Yohannes (PhD), director of crop and horticulture at the Institute.

The Institute has catalogued 6,414 teffvarieties among the nearly 72,874 genetic material it keeps an horticulture crop products in Ethiopia.

"Various research institutions and universities access the varieties for research," Tamene said.

Yonas has also made it his mission to enable the world to recognise teff for its Ethiopian origin and to share its benefits. He is planning to create a strong Ethiopian brand that connects the world’s customers to its roots.

“The grain already has lost its exclusivity and has been globalised, and a Dutch company has secured patent rights,” he said. “We have to accept it as a global crop and come out to the market competitively by adding value to it.”

As part of this journey, Yonas returned to Addis Abeba in 2015 keen to enter Ethiopia’s name in the arena of the global market.

Yonas then started a year-long struggle to obtain an investment license and land to build a cereal processing factory, in Sululta, a town outside Addis Abeba.

“I have sacrificed the last three years to construct the building, fence the premises and pave a road to the factory," he said.

He completed construction eight months ago, but still is unable to obtain electric power supply and the building remains idle.

Frustrated but determined, Yonas returned to London and started looking for European contract manufacturers to help him produce his Ethiopian branded products to start serving the European market.

His answer was to create a new brand, Lovegrass Ethiopia.