D.R CONGO MUKWINJA

This organic fully washed 'Kivu 3' lot is from Mukwinja washing station in South Kivu, one of 8 such stations operated by Virunga Coffee Company, set up by Schluter Ltd. (now Covoya Europe) in 2012 to produce specialty coffees in eastern DRC and improve livelihoods for smallholder farmers in the region. Mukwija works with 699 farmers in South Kivu, who cultivate at altitudes between 1,500 and 2,500masl.

Despite the high potential of the coffees around Mukwinja, farmers are which are characterized by a very small farm size, lack of infrastructures for coffee processing and lack of access to high-quality markets. Virunga Coffee is providing technical assistance to coffee farmers on regerative agriculture practices, as well ass access to coffee inputs, namely high-quality coffee seedlings to increase farming productivity, hence profitability. Our goal is to increase economic opportunitites from coffee farming in South Kivu.

Virunga now have now trained over 8,000 famers in GAP (Good agricultural practices) and have partnered them in organic certification. They have 35 field officers (trained agronomists) working in the region and distribute over 3 million seedlings a year to farmers in Eastern DRC.