ImpactAlpha, January 23 — In Rwanda’s Karenge region, women-owned Green Mountain Arabica Coffee exports green unroasted coffee beans that it sources from 1,200 smallholder coffee farmers, one-third of whom are women.
Bamboo Capital has invested $360,000 in the company through the BUILD Fund it launched with the U.N. Capital Development Fund and the government of Luxembourg. The Rabo Foundation, the impact fund of Netherlands-based Rabobank, invested $150,000.
More than half of Green Mountain’s suppliers are certified under the Rainforest Alliance’s UTZ standards for sustainable farming practices.
Inclusive economy
Green Mountain will use part of the investment to purchase a dry milling plant. Bamboo’s Jean-Philippe de Schrevel said the financing “will secure decent, secure, well-paid jobs, which in turn supports worker’s communities and lifts people out of poverty.”
Jennet Kem, the representative of U.N. Women in Rwanda called the investment “a clear example of a catalytic multi-partner strategic collaboration to expand women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment in Rwanda.”
