As a child in Cameroon, Samuel Ngwa picked coffee beans on his family’s small farm. He never expected he’d start a coffee import business of his own—in Minnesota.
Making it in Minnesota: After obtaining a master’s degree in the U.S., Samuel Ngwa returned to the family trade. “It dawned on me that all this time when my father was kicking my butt to pick beans, people all over the world were drinking coffee,” Ngwa says. Under the label Safari Pride, he has imported, roasted, and sold coffee from Africa’s “bean belt” for more than 25 years. But the time feels right to grow the business, he says....