Sainsbury’s

Building on the success of the existing FRICH funded project, Sainsbury’s, in partnership with Twin and Finlays, aims to further enhance the reputation of the Democratic Republic of Congo as a source of high quality coffee and increase the income of 4,500 smallholder coffee producers . Activities are aimed at improving quality and processing facilities, enhancing marketing activities and building the institutional capacity of two farmer owned agri-businesses.

In 2008, a partnership was formed to rebuild the coffee supply chain in Eastern DRC and facilitate access of Congolese and Malawi coffee to the British market. A FRICH grant has funded some groundbreaking work in response to an urgent need from Kivu farmers, including the 3,500 members of Sopacdi coffee co-operative, whose livelihoods have been devastated by over a decade of conflict and insecurity.  Previously, the potentially high quality coffee produced in this area was very poorly prepared and then either smuggled or sold by farmers to middle men who paid as little as 20% of market price of the coffee to the farmers. It was estimated at that time that an average of 1,000 coffee farmers lost their lives every year trying to smuggle their coffee to Rwanda. The creation of this partnership has enabled 3,500 farmers in Eastern DRC to access international markets and secure a regular income for their families.

Despite the outstanding progress made by Sopacdi in the last 3 years and the growth of the business, the organisation is now facing a great challenge. Sopacdi is finding it difficult to increase its volumes whilst maintaining the excellent quality of its coffee. This is due mainly to a lack of investment in coffee processing facilities and its limited ability to manage quality at scale.

The new project will build on the small but significant steps made to date in building the reputation for good quality Arabica coffee from the DRC. This consortium aims to increase volumes of high quality Congolese coffee sold in the UK and European mainstream market,

The increased on-shelf availability of quality Congolese coffee (both single origin and blended) will allow retailers to differentiate their product range with a quality coffee from a new and exciting origin.