Why St Remio Funded a Cow for the Women of Cocagi
What does a cow have to do with your coffee? More than you'd think. Some of the most important things St Remio has funded for the Cocagi Women's Coffee Farming Cooperative in Rwanda don't look like coffee at all. One of them is a cow.
A long walk up the hill
The Cocagi plantation is remote. Healthy coffee trees need rich soil, and rich soil needs organic manure. For the women of the cooperative, that meant carrying it by hand up the hill to the plantation, a job that was taking hours. Hours that weren't going into the trees, the harvest or their families.
It's the kind of problem you only see when you pay attention to how the work actually happens on the ground. And it's exactly the kind of problem worth solving.
So we funded a cow
St Remio funded a cow for the cooperative, along with a shed to house it. Now fertiliser is made right on site, close to the trees that need it.
The difference shows up in three places. Better soil, because a steady supply of organic manure feeds the land the way it needs. Healthier trees, because good soil grows stronger coffee plants and better cherries. And more time back for the growers, because the hours once spent hauling manure up the hill now go back into the farm and home.
Not a donation, an investment
It would be easy to call this charity. It isn't. Every project St Remio funds at Cocagi is an investment in the growers and the long-term strength of their farm. The cow sits alongside agronomists, training in intercropping and erosion control, a coffee nursery for seedlings, and ongoing land care from compost and organic manure to mulching and pruning.
Cocagi is a women-led cooperative of more than 1,100 members, in a region where women rarely hold land or business ownership. Projects like this give them real assets and a farm that works harder for them. The impact reaches well beyond the plantation, too. The project has now provided work for more than 16,000 additional people in the surrounding community.
Your coffee, full circle
The women of Cocagi grow the coffee. St Remio sources it, roasts it and brings it to your cup. You buy it, and the funds go back to the cooperative, into land, into training and, sometimes, into a cow. Every cup you drink helps make it happen.
Want to meet the people behind it? Start with Patricia, the agronomist behind Cocagi's coffee, and Dafrose, one of the cooperative's growers. Or follow every St Remio project, year by year.
Ready to be part of it? Shop St Remio whole beans and be the impact, one coffee at a time.
