Best of Congo Sees Multiple 88+ Coffees, Auction Ends Friday
CAPCKI Cooperative. Image provided by Farm Africa Connect.
Multiple coffees from the Democratic Republic of Congo surpassed 88 points at the second Best of Congo Cooperatives green coffee competition, while an online auction is currently running through Friday, Aug. 22.
An initiative of UK-based African Coffee Connect and the DRC-based CongoAgri Platform, the competition has resulted in high-quality traceable arabica coffees from 20 DRC producer cooperatives, with microlot sizes ranging from six to 59 bags. Auction details are available here.
The auction follows a creative market strategy in which the competition took place simultaneously in the Eastern DRC city of Goma and in New York City, the latter site including a public tasting at Counter Culture Coffee. The 2025 event follows the inaugural event that took place simultaneously in Goma and London, England.
Designed to promote economic and social sustainability among Congolese producers, the events have come amidst rapid escalations in civil conflict affecting people in coffee-growing regions in Eastern DRC’s North Kivu and South Kivu.
“I’ve been enjoying Congolese coffees for nearly a decade and I am consistently impressed,” Jennifer Yeatts, the coffee buyer at Michigan-based Higher Grounds Coffee Roasters, said in an announcement of the 2025 competition shared with DCN. “The lots we tasted last week were some of the best I’ve ever tried from the Kivu region: complex, dynamic and vibrant.”
The competition and auction program has received support from numerous specialty coffee roasting and trading companies, primarily from the U.S.
“It was great to see the cross-continental collaboration on WhatsApp and Zoom among the [New York City] and Goma juries,” Jim Ngokwe, founder of DRC-focused Optimist Coffee Traders, said. “I also loved seeing how the cooperatives were supportive of each other. There’s a lot of excitement among roasters across the U.S. and I’m excited to see the bids come in.”
Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.
Related Posts
