Hope for the Congolese Coffee Farmer

For more than twenty years the DRC has been facing a war that has left millions dead and several millions displaced. Before the war the region was a hot spot for coffee production, but with little access to international markets and rudimentary equipment the industry withered. To sell their coffee farmers had to smuggle their coffee across Lake Kivu into Rwanda. This plight claimed the lives of one thousand people each year.

Today in the countries eastern hills the coffee bean is bringing hope and a brighter future to the farmers living in the fertile highlands of the Lake Kivu region once again.

Desert Sun’s green coffee importer, Cooperative Coffee is working with farmers in the DRC to bring their coffee to the specialty markets. This means Congolese farmers no longer need to risk their lives crossing into Rwanda.

Coffee farming is now viewed as something to strive for, whereas in these communities before, the role model for wealth and success for rural youth was extortion, or illegal mining, or illegal lumbering of the rain forest. Now that’s changing.

Visit the Sopacdi website to learn more about their promising future.