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Congo Coffee Atlas

A public origin/trade registry, not a directory of cafés

Every documented origin trail for Congolese coffee: region → producer → exporter → destination.

Democratic Republic of the Congo grows some of the world's rarest specialty coffee — on the same volcanic soil and altitude as its neighbors Rwanda and Burundi — yet almost nobody outside the trade can name a single growing region, cooperative or exporter that touches it. The unit of record here is the coffee lot's origin trail, not a café menu. Roasters, retailers and chains that have publicly sold it appear only as a short, last-priority appendix.

Every name, number and route below links to a public source in the footnotes strip. Where a hop in the chain isn't publicly documented — an exporter, a destination, a GPS coordinate — we say so instead of guessing: to verify. Nothing here is invented.

The registry — unit of record: one origin trail per row

Region → producer → exporter → destination

Each row below is a documented origin trail: a named growing region, a named cooperative or washing station, the exporter or trader that moved it (when documented), and the destination or buyer (when documented). Where a hop isn't publicly sourced, the cell says so instead of guessing. Underlined names open a dedicated origin page with the full trail, flagged discrepancies, and sources.

Schema note: this registry is built to grow into plot-level geolocation and an EUDR-style lot file (polygon, GPS pin, producer consent record) as cooperatives and exporters choose to submit it. That field exists in our data model today but is always empty — we do not estimate or invent farm coordinates. Any future geolocation will be opt-in and consent-based.

South Kivu

SOPACDI

Fairtrade (FLO) · Organic · SPP · UTZ

Exporter/trader:
Twin (early buyer, now part of Sustainable Harvest); Oxfam Fair Trade (Belgium, buyer since 2010)
Destination:
Equal Exchange — Congo Coffee Project (USA)

Sources[4][5][6][7][39][40]

South Kivu

Muungano Cooperative

Exporter/trader:
Twin (early buyer, now part of Sustainable Harvest); Oxfam Fair Trade (Belgium, partner since 2011); Atlas Coffee Importers (USA)
Destination:
Kaldi's Coffee (St. Louis, decade-long partner); also retailed by Clive Coffee (Portland)

Sources[8][9][45][47][46]

South Kivu

CAEKD (Rugori washing station)

Exporter/trader:
Coffeelac (processor/exporter); Sucafina (international trader)
Destination:
not publicly documented

Sources[14]

South Kivu

CAPACAD

Exporter/trader:
Sucafina (international trader)
Destination:
not publicly documented

Sources[15]

South Kivu

COACHA (Cooperative Agricole de Chanyi)

Exporter/trader:
Sucafina (international trader)
Destination:
not publicly documented

Sources[16]

North Kivu

Virunga Coffee Company (7 washing stations, North & South Kivu)

Exporter/trader:
Olam Specialty Coffee Europe (operator); Covoya Coffee (Olam's US wholesale desk)
Destination:
Olam Americas Inc./LLC — confirmed by US customs bill-of-lading records

Sources[19][20][21]

North Kivu

Kawa Kabuya Cooperative

Exporter/trader:
not publicly documented
Destination:
Unnamed European and US buyers (per case-study source; no single buyer named)

Sources[10][11][12]

South Kivu

Rebuild Women's Hope (Idjwi Island)

Exporter/trader:
Coffeelac (loan financed the Hala washing station, 2017); Falcon Coffees (Coffeelac is Falcon's DRC export partner)
Destination:
Higher Grounds Trading Co. (Traverse City, MI, USA) via the Lake Kivu Coffee Alliance

Sources[43][44][31][51][52][53]

South Kivu

Unnamed South Kivu smallholder cooperatives (~4,500 farmers, per source)

Exporter/trader:
Falcon Coffees
Destination:
Starbucks Reserve; Counter Culture Coffee; Sweet Maria's (2015–2016 harvest)

Sources[36][26][35][37]

South Kivu

AMKA (Amka Mlimaji Wa Kahawa)

Fairtrade (since early 2016)

Exporter/trader:
not publicly documented
Destination:
Nespresso — Reviving Origins "Kahawa ya Congo"

Sources[38][48][49][50]

Explore on a map

Growing regions, trade routes, and destination markets

The same registry, laid out spatially. Tap a layer, then tap a marker or a list item — the map and the panel stay in sync.

Layer 1 of 4

Where in DR Congo does this coffee actually come from?

Congolese specialty Arabica grows almost entirely in three eastern provinces — North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri — on volcanic soil at altitudes that rival Rwanda and Burundi next door. Robusta, the country's larger-volume crop, is grown more widely but is far less documented at the cooperative level, so this layer focuses on the traceable Arabica cooperatives.

Altitude ranges vary between sources because there's no single authoritative survey — we show the commonly cited range, not one invented precise number.

Growing regions

North Kivu — ≈1,500–2,600 m above sea level (sources vary)[1][2][3][10]

South Kivu — ≈1,400–2,400 m above sea level (sources vary)[1][2][4]

Ituri — ≈1,600–2,100 m above sea level (sources vary)[1][3][17][18]

Why so many hops are marked "not publicly documented"

Eastern DR Congo's coffee belt sits inside one of the most conflict-affected regions on the continent. Farmers around Lake Kivu have historically had two options: sell locally for very little, or risk a boat crossing to Rwanda where prices were better[30][29]. Cooperatives like SOPACDI and Muungano exist largely because that second option was dangerous and undocumented — a cooperative gives farmers a legal, taxed, exportable alternative[5].

Even once coffee is legally exported, it still has to physically leave a landlocked country: north through Uganda to the port of Mombasa, or south across Lake Tanganyika through Tanzania to Dar es Salaam[32]. Every extra border crossing, every trader who blends a lot into a larger container, is a place for a named cooperative or exporter to disappear from the paper trail — which is why several registry rows above stop at "not publicly documented" rather than a guess.

That same scarcity of documentation is why plot-level GPS isn't in this registry yet, and why the few verifiable examples in the proof-of-demand section below — a Starbucks Reserve release, a Nespresso Reviving Origins capsule, a decade-long relationship between a St. Louis roaster and a South Kivu cooperative — are treated as evidence the trail is real, not as the headline.

Last, and deliberately thin — not the point of this registry

Publicly sold — not currently stocked everywhere

This is intentionally the thinnest, last section here. It exists to show the origin trail above isn't hypothetical — it is not a shopping directory, and nothing here implies current stock. Each row cites a public, dated listing from a roaster or retailer's own site, split into a recent group (roughly the last two years) and a historical group (older, since-discontinued releases).

Still on shelf / recent (19)

  • Nespresso — Reviving Origins "Kahawa ya Congo"

    market-dependent

    Coffee chain / capsule brand · AMKA

    Launched as Nespresso's first organic "Reviving Origins" capsule, sourced from AMKA; availability varies by Nespresso market and season, not a permanent global listing.[38]

  • Equal Exchange — Congo Coffee Project

    still on shelf

    Roaster / co-op retailer · SOPACDI

    Fair-trade cooperative importer running the Congo Coffee Project since 2011 with the Panzi Foundation, buying from SOPACDI; still sold in the US.[39][40]

  • Kaldi's Coffee — D.R. Congo Muungano

    limitedannual release

    Roaster / café · Muungano

    St. Louis roaster's decade-long, annually-returning single-origin release from Muungano — a recurring release, not a permanent menu item.[8]

  • Clive Coffee

    still on shelf

    Retailer (reseller) · Muungano

    Portland retailer reselling Muungano-origin coffee roasted by Kaldi's Coffee, and separately by Higher Grounds Trading — Clive doesn't buy from Muungano directly.[9][58]

  • Higher Grounds Trading — D.R. Congo Muungano

    still on shelf

    Roaster · Muungano

    Traverse City, Michigan B Corp roaster; certified-organic, fair-trade Muungano lot from a partnership dating to 2013.[59]

  • Counter Culture Coffee — Buchiro

    subscriber-exclusive

    Roaster · Muungano

    Single-origin-subscription-only lot from Muungano's Buchiro washing station; Counter Culture has bought from Muungano since 2013. Listed harvest window (April–June 2024) may be out of date by the time you read this.[60]

  • Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters — Muungano

    archived

    Roaster · Muungano

    Won this lot at the August 2025 Best of Congo auction — the roaster's second-ever Congo offering. Listing archived (no longer an active product page) as of April 2026.[61]

  • Third Coast Coffee Roasting Company

    still on shelf

    Roaster

    Currently listed in the roaster's catalog as "Democratic Republic of the Congo." Their own origin page names both Muungano and SOPACDI as partners without saying which cooperative is in the current bag — not publicly documented which coop this specific lot is from.[62]

  • Oxfam Fair Trade (Belgium) — Organic Congo

    still on shelf

    Fair-trade retailer · Muungano

    Live SKU sourced directly from Muungano, an Oxfam Fair Trade partner since 2011. Oxfam Fair Trade no longer lists a current SOPACDI product.[63]

  • Oxfam Fair Trade (Belgium) — Women's Hope

    still on shelf

    Fair-trade retailer · Rebuild Women's Hope

    Live SKU sourced from Rebuild Women's Hope, an Oxfam Fair Trade partner since 2022 — a separate Idjwi Island cooperative from Muungano and SOPACDI, not yet its own page on this registry.[64]

  • Volcano Coffee Works (UK) — Rise Up Blend

    still on shelfnot 100% DRC

    Roaster · Rebuild Women's Hope

    An espresso blend of Brazil and Rebuild Women's Hope-origin coffee — not a 100% DRC lot. Served nationally across UK WeWork locations as of 2026.[65][66]

  • Quantum Coffee Roasters (UK) — Kahondo CWS

    backordered

    Roaster · Virunga Coffee Company

    North Kivu lot from Kahondo Coffee Washing Station, one of Virunga Coffee Company's stations; listed as backordered by the roaster.[67]

  • Thread Coffee Roasters — D.R. Congo SOPACDI

    seasonal

    Roaster · SOPACDI

    Baltimore roaster's SOPACDI lot, run as a featured seasonal single-origin rather than a year-round listing.[68]

  • Thanksgiving Coffee Company — Congo Kivu

    subscription club

    Roaster · SOPACDI

    Fort Bragg, CA roaster's recurring Single Origin Coffee Club feature, credited in the roaster's own materials to the SOPACDI cooperative's Mukwinja station.[69][70]

  • Pact Coffee (UK) — Best of Congo, Muungano

    limited

    Roaster · Muungano

    Limited-edition release of the Muungano lot that won the Best of Congo cooperative competition, which Pact has hosted and judged in London.[71]

  • Ethiquable (Belgium/France) — Congo Kivu

    out of stock

    Fair-trade retailer · SOPACDI

    Fair-trade blend from SOPACDI and CPNCK (Idjwi Island — not yet its own page here); listed "rupture de stock" (out of stock) by the retailer.[72]

  • Burman Coffee Traders — Kahondo

    still on shelf

    Green coffee retailer · Virunga Coffee Company

    Green-coffee retailer's Kahondo natural-process lot, most recently arrived August 6, 2026.[73]

  • Sweetwater Organic Coffee — SOPACDI

    still on shelf

    Roaster · SOPACDI

    Gainesville, Florida roaster's SOPACDI single-origin listing.[75]

  • She Grows Coffee — SOPACDI

    still on shelf

    Roaster · SOPACDI

    SOPACDI lot listed with the cooperative's own Fairtrade ID (FLO ID# 26275-D).[76]

Historical (5)

  • Starbucks Reserve — Eastern D.R. Congo Lake Kivu

    historical

    Coffee chain

    Launched in more than 1,500 US & Canada stores on March 22, 2016, via the Eastern Congo Initiative with USAID and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation — a one-time limited release, not repeated since. Green coffee for these lots was traded in part through Falcon Coffees; no single cooperative is named by the source.[35][36][37][26]

  • Burman Coffee Traders — SOPACDI, Pygmies' Coffee Project

    historical

    Green coffee retailer · SOPACDI

    Earlier SOPACDI lot supporting Pygmy farmers in Kalehe territory; this specific lot arrived April 2022 and is not part of Burman's current arrivals.[74]

  • Square Mile Coffee Roasters — Muungano

    historical

    Roaster · Muungano

    First stocked Muungano lot in January 2016, followed by a 2017 fundraising campaign for the cooperative's drying tables; not a current listing.[77][78]

  • Café Grumpy — D.R. Congo Muungano

    historical

    Roaster / café · Muungano

    Reviewed by Coffee Review in May 2020; not part of the Brooklyn roaster's current retail lineup.[79]

  • Roast House Coffee — SOPACDI

    historical

    Roaster · SOPACDI

    Spokane roaster's first US retail release of SOPACDI coffee, in January 2013; not on the roaster's current menu.[80]

We only list a seller here if we found a citable, dated public source — usually the roaster's own product or blog page. Stock status changes constantly; check the linked source in the footnotes strip before assuming anything here is available today.

Kahawa 1893 markets a "Congo Women Blend" and describes DRC farming partners on its impact page, but doesn't name a specific cooperative or lot — so it isn't listed as a row above.[41]

Are you a cooperative, exporter, importer or roaster?

This registry grows only from verifiable additions. If you work in this chain and want your organization listed — or you just want to hear when a new lot record, region or destination is confirmed and added — leave your email below.

We use this to tell you about new lot records, or to follow up if you're a cooperative, exporter, importer or roaster who wants to be listed.

Sources & footnotes

Every name, altitude, route and figure on this site links back to one of the public sources below. Trade press, cooperative and importer sites, an NGO project page, a newsroom, and one government trade database. We didn't independently audit each publisher — treat this as a starting map for further reporting, not a verified registry.

Show all 80 sources
  1. [1] Congolese Coffee: A Real Success Story — Coffeeness
  2. [2] Deep Dive into Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Coffee — Acuratore
  3. [3] Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Coffee Production & Sourcing Guide — Omwani
  4. [4] SOPACDI — cooperative profile — Kawa Kivu
  5. [5] Sopacdi — Oxfam Fair Trade
  6. [6] New technical assistance partnership to boost the work of Congolese coffee farmers — Incofin
  7. [7] SOPACDI: Solidarité Paysanne pour la Promotion des Actions Café et Développement Intégral — Trade for Development Centre (Enabel)
  8. [8] DR Congo Muungano — Single Origin Coffee — Kaldi's Coffee
  9. [9] D.R. Congo Muungano Coffee — Clive Coffee
  10. [10] Kawa Kabuya — cooperative profile — Kawa Kivu
  11. [11] Kawa Kabuya — Ally Coffee
  12. [12] Case Study: Kawa Kabuya — La Différence
  13. [13] Kawa Kivu — platform of Congolese specialty coffee cooperatives — Kawa Kivu
  14. [14] CAEKD Kivu FW — Sucafina
  15. [15] CAPACAD Fully Washed — Sucafina
  16. [16] Coacha FW — Sucafina
  17. [17] The Revival of Arabica Coffee in Eastern DRC — Rikolto
  18. [18] In DRC's Ituri, women coffee farmers wrestle with an uncertain future — Al Jazeera
  19. [19] Virunga Coffee Company DR Congo — Covoya Coffee
  20. [20] DR Congo Wholesale Coffee — Kivu Kavisa Station — Covoya Coffee (Olam)
  21. [21] Virunga Coffee Sprl — Supplier Report (shipping records) — Panjiva
  22. [22] Sucafina — company profile — LinkedIn
  23. [23] Sucafina SA — contact & headquarters — Sucafina Group
  24. [24] Trabocca — company profile — LinkedIn
  25. [25] Falcon Coffees Ltd — company profile — LinkedIn
  26. [26] The Extraction Put the Beef Jerky in the Cold Brew (Falcon Coffees × Starbucks Reserve, DRC) — Daily Coffee News
  27. [27] À propos de l'ONAPAC (Office National des Produits Agricoles du Congo, formerly Office National du Café) — ONAPAC
  28. [28] Prétendu blocage à Beni de 500 tonnes du café : l'Onapac éclaire l'opinion publique — LePotentiel
  29. [29] Public and private partners working together to add value to coffee from North Kivu (DR Congo) — Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law
  30. [30] Congo Coffee Overview — Sweet Maria's Coffee Library
  31. [31] 2023 DRC Trip Report — Atlas Coffee Importers
  32. [32] Agribusiness in DR Congo: Virunga Origins & DCCI — ProdAfrica
  33. [33] Kanungu coffee coops grapple with poor quality as middlemen smuggle stocks from the DRC into Ugandan market — The Cooperator News (Uganda)
  34. [34] Congo, Dem. Rep. — Coffee, not roasted or decaffeinated (HS 090111), exports by destination, 2023 — World Bank WITS (UN Comtrade)
  35. [35] A Cup of Hope with Starbucks Coffee from Eastern Congo — Starbucks Stories (official)
  36. [36] The DRC's Coffee Might Be Served at a Starbucks Near You — USAID Frontlines (Medium)
  37. [37] Starbucks' Partnership with ECI Benefiting Congo Farmers — The Borgen Project
  38. [38] Nespresso invests in the Democratic Republic of Congo's coffee revival — Kahawa ya Congo — Nestlé Nespresso (official newsroom)
  39. [39] The Congo Coffee Project — in Partnership with Equal Exchange — Panzi Foundation
  40. [40] Congo Coffee Project — Equal Exchange Resource Center
  41. [41] Impact — work with cooperatives in Kenya, Rwanda and Congo — Kahawa 1893
  42. [42] DRC coffee coverage — CPNCK, Idjwi Island — Sprudge Special Projects Desk
  43. [43] Lake Kivu Coffee Alliance — Polus Center for Social & Economic Development
  44. [44] Lake Kivu Coffee Alliance: A Public-Private Partnership — Darden Ideas to Action (University of Virginia)
  45. [45] Muungano — cooperative profile — Twin
  46. [46] Muungano Cooperative — Atlas Coffee Importers
  47. [47] Muungano — partner profile — Oxfam Fair Trade
  48. [48] Kahawa ya Congo Vertuo Coffee — Sustainable Coffee — Nespresso Sweden
  49. [49] AMKA — cooperative profile — Kawa Kivu
  50. [50] AMKA : Amka Mlimaji Wa Kahawa — Trade for Development Centre (Enabel)
  51. [51] Our Story — Rebuild Women's Hope
  52. [52] DR Congo — Rebuild Women's Hope Project — CoffeeMango
  53. [53] DRC Women's Hope & Unity — SHIFT Social Impact Solutions
  54. [54] Rugori Fully Washed (Busiga, Ngozi, Burundi — operated by Greenco) — Sucafina
  55. [55] Andreas Nicolaides — Director, Coffeelac SARL (DR Congo) — LinkedIn
  56. [56] One Stop Centers (Bulenga Hospital — Minova health zone, South Kivu) — Panzi Foundation and Hospital
  57. [57] DRC Coffee Exports Decline Despite Production and Cultivation Increase — STiR Coffee and Tea Magazine
  58. [58] DR Congo Muungano by Higher Grounds Coffee — Clive Coffee
  59. [59] DR Congo Muungano — Higher Grounds Trading
  60. [60] Buchiro — Counter Culture Coffee
  61. [61] Muungano — Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters
  62. [62] Democratic Republic of the Congo — Third Coast Coffee Roasting Company
  63. [63] Organic Congo coffee beans — Oxfam Fair Trade
  64. [64] Organic Women's Hope coffee beans — Oxfam Fair Trade
  65. [65] Rise Up Blend — Volcano Coffee Works
  66. [66] Rise Up Coffee: Turning Everyday Workplace Rituals into Global Impact — Comunicaffe
  67. [67] D.R. Congo - North Kivu, Kahondo Coffee Washing Station — Quantum Coffee Roasters
  68. [68] DR Congo SOPACDI — Thread Coffee Roasters
  69. [69] August Single Origin Coffee Club: Congo Kivu — Thanksgiving Coffee Company
  70. [70] April Single Origin Club: Delicious Peace — Thanksgiving Coffee Company
  71. [71] The new era for Congolese coffee with the Best of Congo competition — Pact Coffee
  72. [72] Café grains Congo Kivu 100% Arabica haute altitude — terroir bord Lac Kivu — Ethiquable
  73. [73] Congo Org. Kivu — Kahondo Washing Station Natural — Burman Coffee Traders
  74. [74] Congo Kivu Org. SOPACDI — Pygmies' Coffee Project — Burman Coffee Traders
  75. [75] Congo - Sopacdi — Sweetwater Organic Coffee
  76. [76] Congo, Kivu - Medium Roast — She Grows Coffee
  77. [77] DR Congo Muungano — Square Mile Coffee Roasters
  78. [78] Our Muungano campaign — Square Mile Coffee Roasters
  79. [79] DR Congo Muungano by Cafe Grumpy — Coffee Review
  80. [80] Congolese Coffee in Spokane — Roast House Coffee