CADERCO

CADERCO works to improve the lives of farming communities in North and South Kivu, including providing women with social services and access to justice. 

According to Director Phidias Mufan, “CADERCO’s priority is to assist coffee farmers, their families and communities to increase their revenue and to improve their standard of living.”

In 2015 ECI partnered with CADERCO to organize a series of workshops for members of one of CADERCO’S projects, the coffee cooperative TUFAIDIKE, which means “we prosper together.” Farmers received training on cooperative management, quality coffee production, and credit grants. 

CADERCO has built the capacity of nearly 300 coffee farmers to increase the quality of their coffee, and consolidated 800 small coffee farmers into 25 solidarity groups.

As a result, TUFAIDIKE farmers were able to produce over 8,000 kilos of coffee and sell it at a profit of nearly $25,000. They were also able to sell their coffee to the American specialty buyer Sweet Maria’s Coffee in California.

Before joining one of TUFAIDIKE’s solidarity groups, Mianitse Katanphe, today the president of the solidarity group “Peace,” picked coffee cherries without ever earning a profit. In fact, despite the hard work his family put in, they always sold the cherries at a loss:

“Before joining TUFAIDIKE the money I earned did not help my family. Being in a solidarity group has allowed me and everyone else to produce coffee, and even to put some money aside.” 

In 2016 CADERCO will help increase the revenue of 400 small coffee farmers by investing in a washing station in Minova in South Kivu, and by improving the commercialization so the farmers can take advantage of high-value specialty markets.