Second Best of Congo Cooperatives Competition and Auction Coming to U.S.

Muungano Cooperative. Image provided by African Coffee Connect.

Green coffee buyers in the United States will have the rare opportunity next month to taste and potentially buy high-quality, fully traceable microlots of green coffee from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The 2025 Best of Congo Cooperatives (BOCC25) green coffee competition and auction event is taking place Aug. 11-12 simultaneously in the Eastern DRC city of Goma and in New York City, with a tasting scheduled on Aug. 12 at the Counter Culture Coffee training center in Lower Manhattan. An online auction will follow, with coffees expected to arrive stateside in late 2025.

Following last year’s inaugural Best of Congo Cooperatives, which took place simultaneously in Goma and London, England, the BOCC25 follows a rapid escalation in civil conflict affecting people in coffee-growing regions in Eastern DRC’s North Kivu and South Kivu. In early 2025, UNICEF estimated that 658,000 people were newly displaced due to armed fighting in the region, compounding an already challenging situation due to 30 years of civil conflict in the region.

“We are going through a cruel and critical period, with multiple challenges,” Patrick Pandas of Tujenge Kivu Cooperative told Daily Coffee News in a statement shared by one of the competition’s organizers. “Best of Congo Cooperatives will help us come through this, and give us more resilience.”

The competition will involve coffees from 20 participating cooperatives that will be blind-judged by a skilled jury in New York. Microlots will range from five 60-kilo bags (300 kilos) to 25 bags (1,500) kilos, and each coffee will be accompanied by a profile of the cooperative, including the geolocation of the washing station.

The competition platform is also highlighting initiatives focusing on women and youth and/or environmental issues. Potential buyers who cannot attend the event can purchase samples through the competition website.

“These coffees from isolated Congolese farms are ‘next level’ hard to source, even in more peaceful times,” Richard Hide, the director of BOCC co-founder African Coffee Connect, told DCN. “Tasting and purchasing these coffees is doubly powerful — enabling roasters to use their business to make a tangible difference, while bringing hope and the prospect of a sustainable livelihood to the farmers. It can be the start of something really big.”

CAPCKI Cooperative. Image provided by Farm Africa Connect.

The event is being supported in Goma by CongoAgri Platform, Yetu Qahwah, GiZ and Agriterra. In the U.S., key partners for the event include Optimist Coffee Traders, Equal Exchange, Atlas Coffee Importers, Counter Culture Coffee and Higher Grounds Coffee.

As U.S. roasters continue to seek high-quality, traceable, impact-driven coffees, BOCC25 proposes a unique alignment of quality and purpose.

“By buying these coffees, roasters will be participating in our development. We will invest part of the proceeds from the coffees in our villages and communities,” Daniel Habamungu of Muungano Cooperative told Daily Coffee News. “It will give us the strength and courage to carry on.”

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