Discover Rwandan Coffee
Bourbon Arabica coffee has been grown in Rwanda since the early 1920's but, due to recent global oversupply, the returns from coffee in Rwanda started to diminish. In response, the government has encouraged investment in transforming the coffee industry from a producer of semi-washed coffees into a producer of premium quality, fully-washed Arabica.
Following an initial study in 2000, significant quantities of fully-washed coffees were available for export by 2003. Coffee production is a smallholder activity, with the average family farm being less than a hectare. Today, approximately 430,000 families produce coffee in Rwanda and the typical farm has fewer than 200 trees. Rwanda at present produces 17-22,000 tonnes of Arabica annually, with a small but increasing percentage of fully-washed premium coffees.
Rwandan coffee is grown at altitudes ranging from 1,350 to 2,100 metres and acquires its distinctive taste in the cup from the rich, volcanic soils, rainfall distribution and clement yearlong temperatures that favour the slow maturing of the coffee bean. There is one annual harvest which takes place between February and June.
The positive social and economic impacts of the recent move to fully-washed coffee production are already being seen. Micro-credit banking services and small businesses are springing up near washing stations and primary school enrolment has increased as heads of households are better able to meet school fees.
Coffee is grown and processed in an environmentally responsible manner. Few chemical fertilizers are used and the soil is generally maintained using tradititional methods such as mulching. Water used for pulping in the washing stations is re-circulated and then evacuated to percolation pits so as not to contaminate local water sources. Cherry pulp is composted and reapplied around coffee trees to add nitrogen and potassium to the soil.
The sale of coffee in Rwanda has been completely liberalised since the late 1990's. Exporters are free to transact business without onerous export taxes or significant government involvement. OCIR-CAFE (The Office of Rwandan Industrial Crops - Coffee) is the government's agency responsible for Rwanda's coffee sector. Its main responsibilities aew to determine and implement national coffee policy, to establish quality standards and classification systems, to control coffee quality and to issue certificates of origin and quality.
From the excellent reception given to its washed coffee from the very start, it is clear that the coffee world is welcoming a new speciality coffee origin - Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills.
