Muungano Kiniezire Kivu FW FTO

Muungano means “togetherness” in Swahili. True to its name, the cooperative brings farmers together from different ethnicities including people of Bahunde, Bahavu, Bashi, Batembo, and Congolese descent. Coming together to work on a common business, long-held ethnic tensions were progressively overcome.

In 2009, Muungano officially registered as a cooperative with 350 farmers. Recently, competition in the region has increased, resulting in high prices offered to farmers. Continuing to build on partnerships and investing in Muungano’s capacity to manage its business and face its complex challenges will be key to the cooperative’s ongoing successes.

Gender Equity at Muungano 

In Eastern DRC, the inequalities faced by women are even more extreme than in many other coffee-growing regions of the world, and the need for change is critical. Muungano has been working with the GALS methodology since 2014, working with over 350 women and men. The aim is for all to work together to consider the power imbalances and create social change from a place of understanding, avoiding the kind of conflict that can arise from shifting gender dynamics and power. 

The Muungano women deliver their own coffees and receive payment on certain days. In 2017, the women decided to invest their premium in a joint goat-rearing project, the rationale being that goats can be used as collateral to access small credit or to rent a field from a neighbor. They can also be sold to pay school fees or hospital bills, and the manure can be used as organic fertilizer. This is helping to create an economic power shift as well as social change in Muungano.

Muungano's coffee is grown under varying shades: 20% sun-grown, 50% partial shade, and 30% shade-grown. 

Muungano operates three coffee washing stations (Kiniezire, Buchiro, and Nyangoma), one smaller coffee washing station at Nyabirehe, and two micro washing stations, and a coffee-cupping laboratory at Kiniezire.

Sustainable Harvest® is a specialty coffee trader focusing primarily on bringing coffees to market that are sourced from smallholder farmer cooperatives in the supply chain such as indigenous communities, women groups and the next generation of coffee farmers.

Their sourcing model is built on transparency, traceability and direct relationships between quality-minded coff­ee roasters and best-in-class coffee producers. Sustainable Harvest® has an on-site presence at origin with staff­ in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Peru. Each office coordinates their supply including quality management, supplier relationships, source development, logistics, training and capacity building.