Agriculture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Agriculture is divided into two basic sectors: subsistence, which employs the vast majority of the work force, and commercial, which is export-oriented and conducted on plantations.

Subsistence farming involves four million families on plots averaging 1.6 hectares (four acres), usually a little larger in savanna areas than in the rain forest.

By the mid-1990s, the production of the DRC's principal cash crops (coffee, rubber, palm oil, cocoa, tea) was mostly back in private hands.

10–15 percent of production is being robusta; coffee exports are mostly sold to Italy, France, Belgium, and Switzerland.

The collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in 1989 quickly led to a doubling of exports by the former Zaire, whereupon the surplus entering the world market drove down prices rapidly.