Rwanda Malaba Coffee introduces the treatment of boutique coffee

Rwandans have been growing coffee since colonial times, but until 1999, its products were still classified as below Class C and in the global market.

No one cares about it. The reason for the poor quality is that farmers do not have a fixed procedure for washing coffee beans and do not process coffee fruits according to specifications in time. Buyers buy coffee beans at $0.33 per kilogram, and farmers maintain food and clothing on meagre profits earned at low prices, but they are still in a state of poverty.

In 1999, 220 coffee growers formed guilds in the Malaba area (formerly part of Butare province) to address the disease. Among the guild members, many farmers were separated from their loved ones by the 1994 mass massacre, while some husbands were jailed or were taken to the traditional Gacaca Court (gacaca) to face trial on charges of participating in the massacre. They named the guild "Abau Zam Gambi" (Abahuzamugambi), which means "people who work together to achieve their goals" in Rwandan. Farmers hope that by setting up this association, they will be able to work directly with Geely's exporters instead of peeling layers of skin through intermediary transportation companies, so as to increase profits. Farmers distribute their profits and spend them on tools, fertilizers and seeds to increase production.

In 2000, the Mayor of Malaba requested development assistance from the National University of Rwanda (UNR), which is located near the city of Butare, and the following year, the National University of Rwanda assisted in the establishment of the Joint strengthening Rwanda Agricultural Partnership (PEARL). The PEARL project is also supported by several organizations: the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Michigan State University, Texas A & M University, and many other Rwandan organizations, including the National University of Rwanda, the National Agricultural Laboratory (ISAR) and the Gejali Institute of Technology Management (KIST). In February 2001, PEARL began working with Abauzam Gamby to improve the quality of coffee to meet the standards of the US professional coffee market, leading to the sale of coffee to Malaba Coffee (Rwandan: Ikawa ya Maraba, French: Caf é de Maraba), a Fairtrade certified coffee grown in the Malaba area of southern Rwanda.

Malaba's coffee crop is a bourbon of the Arabica species and is grown in fertile volcanic soil on high-altitude hills. The fruit of the coffee tree is mainly picked manually during the rainy season from March to May, and then transported to the cleaning station in Malaba to extract and dry the coffee beans. At some of these stages, coffee beans are divided into levels of quality. Farmers earn relative profits according to the output and quality of their coffee beans.

Malaba Coffee is sold to a number of roasting companies, among which the best quality is sold to the British Coffee roasting Company (Union Coffee Roasters) in the UK and the Public Coffee Company (Community Coffee) in the United States. As for the domestic market, the Rwandan specialty coffee roasting company buys coffee beans from Malaba and then turns to domestic sales. Malaba coffee is also used to brew beer.

In 1999, the Abauzam Gambi Cooperative (Abahuzamugambi) was founded, with about 2, 000 small farmers growing coffee trees under the management of the cooperative. Since 2000, the cooperative has been receiving funding from the National University of Rwanda (NUR) and the Joint strengthening Rwanda Agricultural Partnership Program (PEARL). Abauzam Gambi Cooperative has improved the quality of coffee and successfully entered the professional coffee market.