Characteristics of coffee beans in Rwanda planting methods of coffee beans in Rwanda

Rwandans have been growing coffee since colonial times, but until 1999, the product was classified as below grade C and on the global market.

Nobody cares. The reason for the poor quality is that farmers do not have a fixed procedure for cleaning coffee beans, and they do not process coffee fruits according to specifications in time. Buyers pay $0.33 a kilo for coffee beans, farmers subsist on meager profits from low prices, but remain poor.

In 1999, 220 coffee growers formed a union in the Malaba area (formerly part of Butare province) to combat the disease. Many of its members are farmers separated from their loved ones by the 1994 massacre, and some have husbands jailed or brought before traditional gacaca courts to face trial on charges of involvement in the massacre. They named the guild Abahuzamugambi, which in Rwandan means "people working together to achieve goals." Farmers hope that by establishing this association, they can directly cooperate with Kigali exporters, instead of being stripped layer by layer through intermediary transportation companies, and thus increase their profits. Farmers divide their profits and spend them on tools, fertilizer and seeds to increase production.

In 2000, the mayor of Maraba requested development assistance from the National University of Rwanda (UNR), located near Butare; the following year, UNR helped to establish the Partnership for Strengthening Agriculture in Rwanda (PEARL). PEARL is supported by several organizations: USAID, Michigan State University, Texas A & M University, and many Rwandan organizations, including the National University of Rwanda, the National Agricultural Laboratory (ISAR), and the Kigali Institute of Technology (KIST). In February 2001, PEARL began working with Abba Uzam Gambi to improve coffee quality to meet the standards of the U.S. specialty coffee market and sell coffee to the United States.

The first problem that Malaba coffee farmers solved was to set up a washing station. Coffee cherries must be transported to a washing station within twelve hours of picking to remove the sugar coating under the outer skin of the coffee beans, otherwise the flavor of the coffee will be greatly damaged. In July 2001, with funding from UNR, the Office des Cultures Industrielles du Rwanda (OCIR-Café), ACDI/VOCA and ISAR, they built the first cleaning station near the main road in Cyarumbo district. However, the washing station was not activated until late in the harvest season, so only 200 kg (441 lb) of the harvest was washed that year. However, the result was unexpectedly good. In 2002, the washing station was upgraded to provide more coffee processing. ACDI/VOCA was responsible for funding the construction of pipelines to bring in Mount Huye mineral water and help improve the efficiency of the cleaning station. The pipeline was commissioned in March 2002.

During the 2002 harvest season, Rwanda introduced a new certification system to ensure that coffee beans delivered to washing stations maintained proper quality. About half of Abba Uzamgambi's members are certified, enabling the cooperative to find buyers in specialized markets in Europe and North America.

Recognized by the world

Malabar beans are hand-picked and sorted according to quality

Malabar beans are hand-picked and sorted according to quality

PEARL brought coffee specialists to Rwanda, where it was responsible for maintaining contact with the seller, Community Coffee of Louisiana, USA, and sending samples to Louisiana. In June 2002, representatives of Public Coffee visited Malabar. At that time, the current President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, stated on behalf of the Government the importance of this programme. Public Coffee bought 18000 kilograms (40000 pounds) of maraba beans for $3 a kilogram, above the market average. Coffee beans are shipped to Louisiana, where they are roasted and used in the company's fine coffee. It was also the first direct contract between an American roasting company and an African coffee cooperative.

Comic relief, a british charity, has also taken an interest in malaba. They pledged to donate some of the £ 55m they earned in Britain and Africa from Red Nose Day in 2001 to the Association des Veuves du Genocide (AVEGA), an association for widows of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The charity found that many Malabar smallholders were also AVEGA members and were therefore able to provide funding and assistance to Malabar farmers through AVEGA. They contacted Union Coffee Roasters, a British coffee roasting company, and in 2002 their representatives visited Malabar along with Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) executives. After visiting various places, the group was awarded certificates, and Maraba coffee became the first commodity for which Rwandan cooperatives had won fair trade status. UCR described Maraba coffee as "sparkling citrus flavours with rich, sweet chocolate notes" and bought all the unsold products from the 2002 harvest.

In early 2003, UCR distributed Malabar coffee through Sainsbury's supermarket and sold it in 350 of its stores until Red Nose Day. In 2003, the Abawuzamgambi cooperative earned a net profit of $35000. Seventy per cent of that amount was distributed to farmers at a price of $0.75 per kilogram, more than three times the profits made by other Rwandan coffee growers and enough to cover previously unaffordable health care and education services. The remaining 30 percent is invested back in the cooperative and used to purchase calcium carbonate, an agricultural lime that reduces soil acidity caused by rainfall loss of minerals