Jaune Congo is not an ordinary farm near Kinshasa. They grow fruits and vegetables and soon, palm trees for oil production in a unique and sustainable way, hand in hand with local partners and employees.

It is located here.

Take the Cico cement factory road after Lukala to get there and ask for “Antoine’s farm”. It is after the village of Wene and Kinanga. Google maps still hasn’t updated that part of the road.

It was started in the mid 2010s by a Swiss couple, Antoine and Marie-Hélène who learned about agriculture by trial and error, research, local expertise and during previous projects. It also helps that Antoine’s father is a farmer and he grew up on a farm in Switzerland. Marie Hélène worked at a French NGO, IECD, on projects with Congolese communities in the Kongo Central region to improve their farming skills.

Over the years, they have learned to work the land without pesticides or unnatural fertilisers. They do their best to work in a collaborative way with their employees who are from villages around their farm.

They have been able to grow strawberries, harvest honey, pineapples, bananas, onions, spring onions and many more vegetables and fruits that are in season.

Here are a few pictures of my trip to their farm. It is not a tourist attraction. They have basic accommodation for themselves only and occasional guests. They live there most of the year.

You are welcome to contact them for getting food delivered to your home in Kinshasa or to learn more about their project.

I was thrilled to have spent time visiting the farm and share a meal with them. A truly brave initiative in the DRC. The location is also stunning. It is in a valley filled with small farms grown by local villagers. Access has improved thanks to a new cement factory in the area. They built a road that goes much closer to the farm than the old bumpy one.

From their website:

“JauneCongo aims to participate in the development of agriculture based on the principles of environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Based in one of the countries with the largest areas of unexploited arable land in the world, at the heart of a continent in full economic expansion, JauneCongo aims to become a leading company in the sector.”

Thank you for reading.