Why Do we Process and Sell Coffee?

The heart of Kula has always been to support farmers; to be part of their community, to learn their struggles and hopes, and to partner with them to create something new, a better future.  Since 2014 we’ve been working solely with coffee farmers in Rwanda, and in 2018 we launched our Fellowship Program to bring together the elements we saw most needed, and to provide a clear and replicable approach to farmers increasing their coffee harvest, their business growth, and their income.    

We do this work because we believe that what has been doesn’t dictate what’s to come.  We believe that things can be better, and that each of us gets to envision and create something new for our future.  The farmers we partner with are crafting a new story for themselves and their families, and everything we do is in service of that success.  

As we continued learning through our Fellowship, our organizational path increasingly intertwined with the realities of the farmers we work with, and the supply chain they’re a part of.  While supporting their farming knowledge, their access to materials and their business acumen, we saw their challenges and missed growth opportunities in bringing their harvest to market- whether through ill-equipped washing stations, numerous middlemen, or complete disconnection from buyers.  Ultimately, all aspects of the coffee industry are connected- yet it sometimes feels very much the opposite, usually leaving the farmers with the least benefit.  

In 2019 we purchased a run down washing station (the processing plant for coffee) in western Rwanda on the shores of Lake Kivu, and in 2020 we began buying coffee cherries from farmers, milling and drying them, and exporting green coffee.  We have learned a lot through the challenges and victories in the years since, but through it all have remained committed to providing stability in a volatile landscape, and bridging a gap between producers and consumers.  By offering farmers our Fellowship program and additional coffee trees and trainings, paying reliable, above market prices for coffee, and connecting with an ever-growing list of supportive roasters around the world to share our coffee, our impact is clear- farmers are able to increase their business capacity, their harvest and their income, ultimately realizing their vision for their family.  This is why we have ventured into processing, exporting and selling coffee- it was a natural next step in which we could further impact farmers’ journeys out of poverty and into a new reality.  

The farmers we work with are some of the most dedicated people we know, and we are proud to bring their harvest and stories to a growing audience.  Through it all we aim to be a force pushing against imbalances of power, to shed light on unknown places, to reimagine the good that can be brought forward, and to create impact and beauty for coffee farmers and consumers alike.