WE CHERISH OUR PLANET
Women empowering women:
Despite the significant role and number of women involved in the agricultural sector, Congolese women farmers face multiple challenges: unequal access to agricultural tools, little or no access to agricultural credits, and very low rates of land ownership.
At SOPAGRI, we’ve decided to center our business model around women empowerment and leadership.
SOPAGRI is the Congolese Women in Coffee and Cocoa Initiative (IFCCA, Initiative des Femmes dans le Café Cacao) key market access partner. SOPAGRI works with IFCCA to create opportunities for Congolese women in the coffee and cocoa supply chains. SOPAGRI provides training opportunities on best agricultural techniques, promotes women's leadership programs, and supports initiatives to create women-owned small-scale processing units. IFCCA was founded by SOPAGRI owners and boasts over 15,000 women members across the DRC.
Moreover, SOPAGRI CEO, Ms. Julie Kamungele, is the DRC representative for the International Women in Coffee Alliance, (IWCA) in DRC, an international organization that specialized in empowering women in international coffee community.
Protecting the world’s richest spot of biological diversity
In the southwestern part of the DRC, SOPAGRI sources its coffee from producers of the Mayombe region found in the Kongo central province. This region is home to one of the world’s richest spots of biological diversity, the Mayombe forest, and the Luki Biosphere Reserve (LBR).
Unfortunately, both the Mayombe forest and LBR have been subject to poaching and heavy deforestation over the past decades. To address these issues, SOPAGRI has worked together with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Café Africa on projects aiming to protect these rich natural resources while finding totally sustainable alternatives to improve the livelihood of local communities.
