The Coffee Connections Project is a social venture bringing together non profit Rural Development Connections and socially responsible, farmer-owned coffee company Safi Coffee.

Rural Development Connections is a non profit that aims to help move smallholder Kenyan coffee farmers up the value chain, improving quality of life and achieving sustainable economic stability at the community level. RDC aims to empower farmers by providing tools, organic farming and financial literacy training as well as organic and fair trade certification, to help them grow better crops, and to sell them for a better price.

We go further than fair trade however, by giving the farmers a direct stake in the coffee business. Through participation in the Coffee Connections Project, this growing network of 100+ farmers in Nyeri, Kenya, also owns a stake in Safi Coffee, the company that will sell the finished product in the US. Rural Development Connections is also working on local community projects such as improving school and medical facilities and will help the farmers reinvest their profits in a way that encourages sustainable development. 

The Background

Coffee is a unique crop.  It is very temperamental and can only be grown in frost-free regions of the world, which are mainly found in the developing South. In contrast, the majority of all coffee is consumed in the Northern developed nations.

Coffee is largely cultivated by poverty-stricken smallholder farmers with little education.  These farmers tend to have control over the harvesting of the coffee beans only, and not the roasting process. This means that they are not able to profit from the possible differentiation of their product. This phase of the chain of production is where much of the profit lies in the wholesale coffee market.

And so, with the aim of moving these farmers further up the value chain, The Coffee Connections Project was born.