Mayombe

The INERA research station Luki is located in the Atlantic Mayombe rainforest on the edge of a 33,000-hectare biosphere reserve. Surrounded by gorillas, bonobos, forest elephants, and other witnesses of ancient rainforests, wild Coffea canephora grows here – the original form of Brazil’s Conilon line, today the second most important Canephora line worldwide alongside Robusta. Around 130 years ago, in the midst of the Congo atrocities, Belgian botanists laid here the second most important foundation stone for today’s Canephora industry. All Brazilian Conilons trace back to plants that were domesticated in Luki from wild material.

While Conilon made a name for itself in Brazil, Luki sank into oblivion. After the end of formal colonial rule in the 1960s, the Congo wars and the Angolan war brought work with coffee to a standstill and plunged the region into fear and insecurity. Only since the 2000s and more recently with the renewed rise of Canephora – has the potential of the Luki lines become widely recognized again. Infrastructure for industrial processing has to be almost completely rebuilt, while the population suffers from malnutrition and a lack of basic services.

Any form of industry has to be rethought from the ground up here. At the same time, coffee research is pioneering – especially through cooperation between Congolese and Belgian partners. One of these partnerships gave rise to a startup: the Congolese field botanist Justin Asimonyo and the Belgian agronomist Ieben Broeckhoven believe in the potential of Luki specialty coffee. In a global context, the importance of this production can hardly be overstated.

As big as the vision is, so are the challenges. Every step comes with pioneer costs – from purchasing cherries to fermentation, depulping and drying, all the way to hulling, selection, packaging, and export logistics. There is no proven recipe for any of these processes. We are delighted to be part of this inspiring journey and to walk this new path together.