Introduction of rich, sweet Rwandan coffee beans with citrus flavors

In early 2003, UCR distributed Malaba coffee through the Sainsbury's supermarket in Sainsbury and sold it in its 350 stores until Red nose Day that year. In 2003, Abauzam Gump made a net profit of US $35000. Of this, 70 per cent is allocated to farmers at a price of US $0.75 per kilogram, more than three times the profits earned by other Rwandan coffee growers and enough to cover previously unaffordable health care and education services. The remaining 30% is invested in cooperatives and used to buy calcium carbonate, an agricultural lime that can reduce the increase in acidity of the soil due to the loss of minerals by rainfall.

Coffee and beer

Since 2003, when PEARL thought that the mode of operation was self-sufficient, it gradually reduced the financial support of the Abauzam Gambi cooperative. Cooperatives provide grower loans to help improve their living standards and can invest in livestock, health insurance and education. A cooperative bank opened in the village in March, allowing farmers to maintain and manage their deposits locally without having to trek to the city of Butare.

People revolved around the computers in the new telecom center in late 2004, when the London simultaneous Brewery (Meantime Brewery) began to offer coffee beer made from coffee beans produced by Malaba. The drink is identified as an alcoholic chilled cappuccino or digestif. After tasting coffee from all over the world, the chief brewer decided to add a small amount of vanilla and chocolate to Malaba coffee, which tastes better than nutty coffee and bitter coffee from South America. The original beer had an alcohol content of 4%, the same caffeine content as coffee and was described as "silky and mellow". Coffee and beer are sold in large branches in Sainsbury and in some bars and clubs. The drink is one of the only two Fairtrade-recognised beers in the UK market, and it was not until 2006 that it lost its Fairtrade status by reducing coffee rates and increasing alcohol content (now 6 per cent). Coffee beer is still made from Malaba coffee beans and is the only coffee beer recognized in the British Isles and won the gold medal in the world beer cup coffee flavor beer category in 2006.

In 2006, the Swedish Minister of Development and Cooperation and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karin Jemtin (Carin Jamtin), visited Malaba to expand cooperation between Sweden and Rwanda and to promote Malaba coffee to the Swedish professional market. In July 2006, a remote center (telecentre) opened in Malaba under the coordination of PEARL, USAID, NUR and Washington State University (WSU). Among them, the Digital Gap reduction Center (Center to Bridge the Digital Divide,CBDD) provides funds and resources. Three WSU students stayed in Rwanda for six weeks to help set up the centre and train local staff. The center is now run by local staff.