‘Muungano’ – togetherness in Swahili – is the guiding principal of the cooperative located close to the shores of Lake Kivu in eastern DRC. Muungano’s farmers have the perfect conditions to produce top grade specialty washed-Arabica coffee and they are committed to improving quality.

Fast facts

  • Location: Lake Kivu, East DRC
  • Altitude: 1480-2000 m
  • Founded: 2009
  • Members: 5223 members, including 1506 women
  • Coffee: Arabica
  • Variety: Bourbon
  • Type: N/A
  • Quality: fully washed, sun dried
  • Flavour profile: medium-bodied with sweet floral flavours and citrus notes

Headlines

  • perfect for producing conditions for high-quality washed Arabica
  • focuss on new infrastructure to achieve sustainable, quality driven coffee businesses

Quality and processing

Muungano’s farmers have the perfect conditions to produce top grade specialty washed-Arabica coffee and they are wholly committed to fulfilling this potential. They are investing in coffee nurseries and building community-level washing stations; as well as renovating the land by planting new seedlings and harvesting the coffee scrupulously. Muungano has been involved in a program to identify local people to receive extensive cupping training to learn the skills and universal language of the specialty coffee market and it opened two new washing stations in time for the 2014 harvest.

Projects

Twin is working with Muungano to build a central and a micro-washing station. The combined capacity of the stations is 115.2 MT which is equivalent to six containers of fully-washed coffee. We are also working with the cooperative to build a cupping laboratory.