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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. Cafés and chains appear only as a short, last-priority "proof of demand" note.

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][46][48][47]

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[44][45][31][52][53][54]

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][49][50][51]

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

Has this coffee ever reached a real café or chain?

This is intentionally the thinnest, last section here. Congolese-origin coffee is genuinely rare in cafés — most listings we could verify are limited-run, seasonal, or tied to a specific cooperative partnership rather than a permanent menu item. It exists mainly to show the origin trail above isn't hypothetical.

  • Starbucks Reserve

    Coffee chain

    Launched Starbucks Reserve® Eastern D.R. Congo Lake Kivu in more than 1,500 US & Canada stores on March 22, 2016, sourced via the Eastern Congo Initiative with USAID and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.[35][36][37][26]

  • Nespresso — Reviving Origins

    Coffee chain

    Launched KAHAWA ya CONGO — its first organic "Reviving Origins" coffee — sourced from Lake Kivu, first in the US (2020) and later in additional markets including the UAE.[38]

  • Equal Exchange — Congo Coffee Project

    Roaster / co-op retailer

    Fair-trade cooperative importer running the Congo Coffee Project since 2011 with the Panzi Foundation, buying from SOPACDI and donating $1 per pound sold to survivor-support services in Bulenga, DRC.[39][40]

  • Kaldi's Coffee

    Roaster / café

    St. Louis roaster with a decade-long direct sourcing relationship with the Muungano Cooperative, South Kivu.[8]

  • Clive Coffee

    Roaster / retailer

    Portland, Oregon retailer selling Muungano Cooperative (South Kivu) washed Bourbon.[9]

  • Kahawa 1893

    Roaster

    East-African-focused coffee brand that sources from cooperatives in Kenya, Rwanda, and Congo, and reports directing farmer "tip fund" support to Congolese flood-relief efforts in 2024.[41]

  • Blue Bottle Coffee

    Coffee chain

    Its "Three Africans" blend has combined a washed Uganda or Congo lot with two Ethiopia lots — batch-dependent, so Congo-origin coffee is not in every bag.[42]

We only list a café or chain here if we found a citable public source for it. No café or chain on this list was invented, and most listings were limited-time — check the source before assuming it's on shelves today.

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 58 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] Coffee Review: Three Africans by Blue Bottle Coffee (Uganda or Congo; Ethiopia) — Coffee Review
  43. [43] DRC coffee coverage — CPNCK, Idjwi Island — Sprudge Special Projects Desk
  44. [44] Lake Kivu Coffee Alliance — Polus Center for Social & Economic Development
  45. [45] Lake Kivu Coffee Alliance: A Public-Private Partnership — Darden Ideas to Action (University of Virginia)
  46. [46] Muungano — cooperative profile — Twin
  47. [47] Muungano Cooperative — Atlas Coffee Importers
  48. [48] Muungano — partner profile — Oxfam Fair Trade
  49. [49] Kahawa ya Congo Vertuo Coffee — Sustainable Coffee — Nespresso Sweden
  50. [50] AMKA — cooperative profile — Kawa Kivu
  51. [51] AMKA : Amka Mlimaji Wa Kahawa — Trade for Development Centre (Enabel)
  52. [52] Our Story — Rebuild Women's Hope
  53. [53] DR Congo — Rebuild Women's Hope Project — CoffeeMango
  54. [54] DRC Women's Hope & Unity — SHIFT Social Impact Solutions
  55. [55] Rugori Fully Washed (Busiga, Ngozi, Burundi — operated by Greenco) — Sucafina
  56. [56] Andreas Nicolaides — Director, Coffeelac SARL (DR Congo) — LinkedIn
  57. [57] One Stop Centers (Bulenga Hospital — Minova health zone, South Kivu) — Panzi Foundation and Hospital
  58. [58] DRC Coffee Exports Decline Despite Production and Cultivation Increase — STiR Coffee and Tea Magazine