Coffee unknown to Rwanda-Malaba Coffee

Speaking of Rwandan coffee, many people may have drunk it, but there is a kind of Rwandan coffee that you may not have heard of.

Malaba Coffee (Rwandan: Ikawa ya Maraba, French: Caf é de Maraba) is 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). The Abauzam Gambi Cooperative has improved the quality of coffee and successfully entered the professional coffee market.