African Coffee Connect: connect with extraordinary African coffee farmers.
Our team
Richard Hide, founder
Richard entered the green coffee business in 1986 at Edm. Schluter & Co. in the City of London, trading coffees from across the world, with a particular focus on East Africa. In 1992 he moved to development through trade organisation Twin and Twin Trading, working with coffee cooperatives in Latin America and Africa to navigate the challenges of coffee sector liberalization, and to seize emerging export market opportunities. He led Twin’s coffee work for 26 years, providing coffee market focused technical assistance. From its launch in 1992 until 2002, he was responsible for the sourcing, product development and the co-operative technical support program of UK direct fairtrade pioneer Cafédirect.
From 2004 Richard focused exclusively on supporting smallholder farmer cooperatives in remote regions of East Africa to develop and market certified premium coffees, with this work engaging arabica growing coffee regions in eastern and western Uganda, northern Tanzania, northern Malawi, Burundi and, from 2008, eastern DRCongo.
In Eastern DRCongo Richard first travelled to Goma and Minova in 2008, immediately seeing the enormous potential to revive the arabica coffee sector that had largely declined and disintegrated over the previous 30 years. He worked with local cooperative leaders, development funders and coffee buyers to bring in resources and know-how to re-start specialty coffee production and exports. In 2014 this work in the Kivu region was recognized with the Sustainability Award of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. Then in 2015 Richard was a co-founder of the annual Saveur du Kivu, which brought coffee importers and roasters from across the world to South Kivu for a coffee quality conference and competition.
Since leaving Twin in 2018 Richard has continued to develop international market opportunities with co-operatives in South Kivu and North Kivu. He set up African Coffee Connect in 2023 as the vehicle for this work. He has worked extensively with East African agricultural value chain specialist Farm Africa, notably in their North Kivu partnership with Virunga National Park between 2018 and 2022. He has worked with Solidaridad on their Kenya and Tanzania coffee programmes and is currently engaged with the Progreso co-operative business support programmes in Uganda and Rwanda. He supports Farm Africa’s work with Forest Coffee co-operatives in Ethiopia and is engaged with the development of Farm Africa’s forthcoming CAFI coffee Agroforestry Program in Eastern DRCongo.
Samuel Pestridge, trainee
Samuel Pestridge is a trainee with African Coffee Connect, bringing an academic and international background to the role. He holds a first-class degree in Politics, Spanish and French from the University of Sheffield, where his dissertation explored how mindfulness might be used to reduce political division and polarisation. Alongside his studies, Samuel gained experience working in a multi-lingual international team in France and studying in Spain, deepening both his language skills and cross-cultural awareness.
He has long been motivated by a concern for global inequality, first sparked as a teenager when reading Jason Hickel’s The Divide. This commitment underpins his alignment with African Coffee Connect’s values, especially its focus on supporting smallholder farmers and cooperatives. Samuel is excited by opportunities to work across cultures, foster partnerships between buyers and producers, and contribute to building fairer and more sustainable trade relationships through coffee.
Dayoung Kim, South Korea Representative
Dayoung’s journey with coffee began as a simple passion but soon grew into a lifelong commitment to coffee producers and their communities. In 2006, she first witnessed the lives of coffee farmers in Vietnam, an experience that led her to explore how coffee could connect the sustainable livelihoods of both producers and consumers.
Since then, she has worked closely with farmers in Nepal, Rwanda, and Peru, supporting them as an activist with Beautiful Coffee in Korea. Her focus has always been on using coffee as a bridge to create a fairer and more sustainable future for producers.
In 2018, Dayoung lived in Rwanda as the country director for Beautiful Coffee, where she deepened her understanding of coffee’s role in both local communities and global value chains. Since 2023, she has served as an Authorised Trainer in Sustainability for the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), engaging in teaching, writing, and speaking activities.
Today, through African Coffee Connect, she is committed to linking coffee producers and buyers, working together toward a sustainable future.
Julie Muteguzi, DRC Associate
My name is Julie Muteguzi, I am 35 years old married mother of two children. I am an agricultural engineer by training and I live in the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
I am passionate about coffee cultivation and committed to promoting sustainable agroecological practices.
I actively work to empower young people and women coffee farmers by providing them with training and support to improve the quality of their coffee and increase their household income while strengthening their role in the coffee sector. My goal is to promote agricultural development that respects the environment.
Adelard Palata, DRC Associate
Adelard Palata is an agricultural engineer who has been passionate about the coffee value chain from an early age. The son and grandson of coffee producers, his family’s coffee farm allowed him to grow up and further his studies.
After completing his studies, Adelard focused on supporting small coffee producers to improve quality in order to gain access to a more profitable market and connect with industry experts to gain a thorough understanding of the challenges facing the sector. Various cooperatives from North and South Kivu have received Adelard’s guidance, eventually coming to call him ‘Coffee Adelard’.
Partnering with Richard Hide has been a significant asset in his industry training, offering small coffee producer organisations the opportunity to develop their understanding of the international coffee markets. Adelard believes in sustainable coffee production, ensuring environmental protection in line with national and international strategies.
David Trelawny-Ross,
web design and copywriting
David Trelawny-Ross is a freelance web/graphic designer and copywriter/copy editor. He has collaborated with Richard Hide on projects for over 30 years. He is passionate about education as an engine for social and economic development. He loves to climb and travel in the mountains and will happily spend time in any country that produces coffee, tea or wine.
Former team members
Soizic le Lasseur
ACC is deeply grateful to Soizic for her work on the website at the initial construction stage, especially gathering information form all of the cooperatives.