In the 10 years that Girum Tessema has worked for Merkeb Union, he has seen it grow in impressive style. The Merkeb FCU is multipurpose union that was established in June 2001 with 19 primary cooperatives (PCs) and with Birr 1.14 million capital. Currently the number of PC shareholders have increased to 135 in 12 woredas with a capital of 137 million birr, and the number of farmers who are members of the union has reached 225,105 with 18% female membership. Merkeb aggregates teff, maize, haricot bean, rice and other commodities from its members. It has one wheat flour factory, one animal feed processing plant, more than 5 warehouses in different towns with a capacity of 30,000 tons. It provides mechanization services, including tractors and threshers, to its members.