D. R. CONGO - North Kivu, Kahondo Coffee Washing Station
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About this coffee
Kahondo Coffee Washing Station (CWS) is one of 9 washing stations belonging to Virunga Coffee Company, which was set up in 2012 to produce high quality coffees for the specialty market and to increase premiums for the thousands of smallholder farmers in the region.
Kahondo village is located in the Isale region of Nord-Kivu (North of Lake Kivu), on the edge of Virunga National Park, bordered by Uganda to the east. The region has excellent conditions for speciality arabica production with plentiful rainfall, high altitude and highly fertile volcanic soils.
On the flip side, the region is poverty-stricken with a severe lack of infrastructure which has made high quality arabica both difficult to produce and extremely challenging to export. Virunga Coffee Company has sought to overcome many of these problems through hands- on farmer education and investment in local infrastructure such as roads and bridges. This has allowed quality improvements every season and, in turn, higher premiums for farmers.
