Bamboo Capital Partners today reports that in December 2022 the BUILD Fund, a partnership between Bamboo and the United Nations Capital Development Fund, invested over USD$510k in Green Mountain Arabica Coffee (GMAC) Limited together with the Rabo Foundation.

GMAC was established in 2012, as a producer and exporter of green coffee, that is unroasted coffee beans. In Rwanda, 85 per cent of the country is rural and more than 49 per cent of people in rural areas live in poverty. The BUILD Fund investment will allow GMAC to expand and improve its products and services and lift more people out of poverty through direct and indirect creation of jobs for both women and young people.

GMAC is committed to making a positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers with which it works. GMAC has also acquired a Rainforest Alliance UTZ certification and will soon seek other certifications such as Fairtrade.

Out of the 1,200 producers in GMAC’s coffee supply network, 635 are UTZ certified. The UTZ certification stands for more sustainable farming and better opportunities for farmers, their families and the planet.  It also ensures that coffee producers take measures to (re)use water efficiently, reducing coffee producers’ vulnerability to climate change.

In addition, GMAC encourages its suppliers to use cultivation techniques that improve coffee production without causing soil degradation and that prevent soil erosion, with the goal to enhance biodiversity and environmental conservation. Similarly, GMAC is implementing a reforestation program with a few its coffee farmers in areas where there is no natural vegetation left.