Malaba coffee beans in the western coffee producing area of Rwanda

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 International (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 Maraba 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