A loan helped to enable higher incomes, improved yields, and increased market access for smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda.


Mountain Harvest's story

Despite coffee’s importance to the Ugandan economy, coffee farmers are paid poorly and are often vulnerable to a cycle of poverty. Coffee growers do not have the necessary infrastructure, training, or financing to produce high quality coffee. Therefore, farmers are left to distribute their yields to traders at low prices who primarily produce coffee for commodity markets, generating lower incomes for farmers.

Mountain Harvest, a social enterprise based in the Mount Elgon region of Uganda, works to raise the quality of life for smallholder Arabica coffee farmers. It’s approach elevates the quality of coffee, disconnects pricing from the commodity markets, and uses the additional margin generated from higher prices to invest at the farm level through an intense, service-oriented engagement with smallholder farmers. Mount Elgon is an untapped origin for the popular Arabica beans, placing Uganda in a position to break into international markets.

Mountain Harvest supports more than 500 farmers, paying 15-20% above local market prices. The company builds farm and household assets and enhances farmer resilience to shocks on a commercially and environmentally sustainable basis.

This loan of $50,000 will help pay farmer suppliers above market prices for their raw materials and support various income diversification projects. This is Mountain Harvest’s first loan through the Kiva Social Enterprise program.


This loan is special because:

It provides ethical prices to more than 500 Ugandan coffee farmers.



Loan details


Lenders and lending teams




Loan details