This coffee comes to us from the Kirorero washing station. This washing station serves about 2012 smallholder producers in the areas of Boneza and Musasa, about 800 of whom are women farmers. It is run by Coopérative pour la Promotion des Activités Café or COOPAC. This washing station is remote, only accessible by boat after an hour-and-a-half drive down the lake. Tucked in the steep walls of the Gasuma valley right at lake level, Kirorero receives coffee from 1511 farmers. Some coffee arrives by boat and the rest on foot or bicycle, since they do not have direct access via road. This of course means that all processed coffee must be consolidated and make the journey up the lake by boat to Nyamwenda CWS where it’s trucked out to the main access point.

Remote but beautiful, Kirorero is a great example of COOPACs mission to collaborate with farmers to enhance their quality of life and well-being. The growers are organized into two first-tier cooperatives: KOTWIBAKABO and COPROCUCAMU.

COOPAC is a Fair Trade–certified cooperative located near Lake Kivu on the steep slopes of volcanic mountains. The organization was founded by Emmanuel Rwakagara, who is the president of COOPAC as well as the owner of the Gishamwana Island coffee estate. COOPAC began with 110 farmers in April 2001 and currently has 8,000 members contributing coffee from Ack, Ubuzima, Tuzamurane, Kopabm, Abakundakurima, and Abanyamurava. With 6 washing stations along the northern landscape of Lake Kivu, COOPAC exports 150 containers of Fair Trade-certified coffee annually.

COOPAC is committed to environmental and social sustainability in addition to producing high-quality coffee. Waste by-products from processing are used as fertilizer rather than discarded into the lake, and shade trees are distributed to farmers to prevent soil erosion. COOPAC has assisted in the construction of a school, healthcare clinics, and roads and bridges in the community. The cooperative also has a program to distribute cows and goats to the most productive farmers and provides farmers with an agricultural advisor to teach the latest production methods.

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