The Muungano Nyabirehe washing station. All images courtesty of Best of Congo Cooperatives.
The third Best of Congo Cooperatives coffee auction runs Sept. 1-3, giving green coffee buyers a rare chance to buy high-scoring, traceable microlots from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Beyond the coffee, the competition and auction platform gives green coffee buyers a chance to support producers and potentially promote farm investments in a region long affected by civil conflict and infrastructure challenges.
“Far from allowing the difficulties they face to defeat them, DRCongo’s coffee farmers are more determined than ever to show the world what they are capable of, and what their coffee means to them,” Best of Congo Cooperatives Co-Founder Richard Hide said in an announcement of the auction.
On the M-Cultivo auction platform, the 2026 Best of Congo Cooperatives program features 32 coffees, including 14 international winners offered through the auction and 18 national winners available through an offer sheet. The auction lots come from cooperatives in eastern DRC, with coffees grown from the shores of Lake Kivu to the slopes of the Rwenzori mountains.
Café Izuba coffee.
The auction catalog spans fully washed coffees, natural-process coffees and anaerobic-fermentation coffees, including several lots produced by women. The lots have an average elevation of 1,570 meters, according to the auction website.
The top-scoring 14 lots range from 86 to 300 kilograms, with bids starting at US$13 per kilogram ($5.90 per pound). The coffees ranked 15-32 are part of an offer sheet that closes on Sept. 10. Lots will be consolidated, then shipped to the U.S., UK, EU and South Korea for distribution.
This year’s top lot is Café Izuba, described by organizers as the DRC’s first anaerobic coffee. Produced by South Kivu specialty coffee leaders Linda Mugaruka and Moise Dunia Muhindo, the coffee was created as both a quality experiment and a response to the harsh realities facing coffee-producing communities in Kivu.
“In the current context of Kivu and the coffee sector in DR Congo, choosing to produce an experimental anaerobic coffee like Izuba is far more than a technical innovation: it is an economic, social and symbolic response to the challenges facing producers,” Mugaruka and Dunia Muhindo said in the announcement.
They said the current season has brought difficulty accessing plantations, logistical constraints and added pressure on farmer income, making it more important to create additional value from every kilogram of coffee produced. The coffee’s name, Izuba, means sun, which the producers described as a symbol of life, energy and renewal.
Linda Mugaruka and Moise Dunia Muhindo.
Best of Congo Cooperatives is a joint initiative of African Coffee Connect and CongoAgri Platform. The groups launched the first edition in 2024.
The 2026 program involves several new community-level efforts, including microlots produced by women, young people and marginalized Batwa communities with backing from African Coffee Connect and the UK’s Pact Coffee. Seven of those lots are included in the 2026 program, with three among the international auction winners, according to the announcement.
“DRC is still very early in establishing itself as a recognized specialty coffee origin,” Will Corby, director of coffee and social impact at Pact Coffee, said. “There is so much still to uncover, and I’d encourage more roasters and buyers to get involved now, taste the coffees and see what is happening for themselves.”
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