Located high up on hills overlooking Lake Kivu, on the opposite side of the lake from Rwanda the SOPACDI comprises of 4,023 active smallholder farmer members, 1,276 of whom are women.
The farmers represent several villages in the area, and own an average of 1.6 hectares of land each. The coffee is certified organic and is grown on sandy clay loam soil.
Joachim Munganga, who was a farmer himself, founded SOPACDI in 2003 by lovingly restoring a washing station in the area, which provided service and market access to the growers in these extremely remote highlands.
The cooperative was the first to achieve Fair Trade certification in Congo. Members of the cooperative represent several different ethnic groups, speaking Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, and Kihavu, and many of the women members are widows.
The farmer members deliver their coffee in cherry form and it is fermented twice at the washing station, first for 12 hours dry, then again underwater for 12 hours after being washed and graded in the washing channels. The coffee is dried for 20–25 days on raised beds under the shade of a net.