Coffee from Rwanda: savouring a dream

Kigali, July 2005 – From April to the end of June, the Sakara coffee washing station in Rwanda’s province of Kibungo, bustles with activity. Coffee-growers in the nine surrounding areas come to weigh their crops. For the 845 members of Iakab, the association that manages the washing station, it is the beginning of a fruitful season.

"We got together in 1999 to reactivate coffee as a cash crop. Coffee cultivation has a long history in the region," says Efrem Ndengabaganizi, President of Iakab. "Many coffee plantations whose owners were killed or displaced by the 1994 genocide were abandoned, and we lost many members. We decided to join forces to get better prices for our product, but also to bring the community together after the hard times of the war."

The history of the association Iakab is by no means unique. Many communities have resumed cultivating the crops grown before the genocide, and all communities are trying to heal the still painful wounds of the past. However, Iakab, in particular, got a push in the right direction this year.

Making a cash crop profitable
The Smallholder Cash and Export Crops Development Project (PDCRE) was launched in 2003 by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) in support of the poorest coffee and tea producers. The project helps producers organize into cooperatives, building or rehabilitating washing stations and giving them access to fair trade distribution channels, which are much more advantageous than traditional sales networks. Work began this year on the coffee production chain, and will begin in 2006 for tea.

The project’s major partner is Twin Trading Ltd. (TWIN), an NGO specializing in fair trade, and OCIR-Café, the public coffee agency, whose role is to train producers, perform quality control at its tasting laboratory and manage the project’s nurseries.

TWIN organizes producers into cooperatives and enforces standards to ensure access to the fair trade market. "Seasonal workers at the washing station are paid a minimum wage and there are health regulations that must be met," explains John Wasambla, TWIN Rwanda’s officer in charge of coffee. "The station is also required to recycle processing waste to protect the environment." Nothing is left to chance in fair trade!

Although TWIN oversees washing station management, it is the association’s members who are formally responsible, and they will take over once they have become independent, in five years’ time. Coffee-growers pay an initial membership fee of 1,000 Rwandan francs (about 2 US$) and are required to sell their entire production to the washing station to make the best use of the facility and amortize its operating costs.

After the coffee is washed, it is put out to dry on large tables, as seen here at the Sakara washing station.
Credits: IFAD/M. Millinga, 2005

Organization is strength
The association’s members are scattered over nine areas adjacent to the station, and some of them have long distances to travel. Producers living near the washing station take in their own coffee cherries, on foot or by bicycle. Those located far away go to collection points where their cherries are weighed and transported to the station. Operations are impeccably run and producers wait no more than a week for payment.

Work at the washing station is organized as efficiently as possible. The cherries are weighed upon arrival, then taken to a machine that removes the fruity pulp. Cherries are then washed in large vats, and sorted and dried on drying tables. To protect the environment, waste water is diverted to earthen gutters that act as filters, and the pulp is used to make fertilizer.

"We used to do everything by hand, at home. It was very hard work and we didn’t have the training to produce quality coffee," says Efrem Ndengabaganizi.

By early July, calm has returned and there are just a few seasonal workers busy preparing bags of coffee for sale. "We produce mostly Arabica beans for resale in Europe," explains John Wasambla. "We are also surveying the South African market and plan to look into opportunities in Asia so that we can give Rwandan producers as many market outlets as possible."

Rebates: a real advantage for members
Although the purchase price for coffee cherries at the station is the same for all, members are paid twice. Once the coffee is sold and operating expenses have been covered, as well as any loan repayments, profits are redistributed among association members at a ceremony to which all are invited, including buyers’ representatives.

Although the rebate ceremony is planned for year-end, it is a constant topic of conversation from early in the year, and projections are optimistic. This year, the first year of station operations, the cooperative produced 30 tonnes of coffee. For next year, plans call for a quadrupling of production by starting operations earlier and attracting more coffee-growers.

"With the profits we make, we will build schools and clinics. After that, we’ll buy a vehicle for coffee collection," says the President of lakab. "We would also like to set up a small bank in our sector, a small microfinance institution. At the moment we waste a lot of time and money borrowing from banks in Kigali. The rates are favourable, but the process takes too long."

At the Bicumbi washing station, coffee is stored in 50 kg sacks, then sold through fair trade outlets. In 2005, the station produced 24 tonnes of first-grade Arabica coffee.
Credits: IFAD/M. Millinga, 2005

Results still uneven
Not all the associations have been so successful. In Kibuye, construction of the washing station began very late and many producers, including many members of the Kopakama association that manages the station, did not have the confidence or patience to wait until it was finished. They sold their cherries to local bulkers, and the facility got what was left over.

"Probably there will be no rebate this year," says Janvier Gasasira, the project’s provincial coordinator in Kibuye and national leader of the coffee component. "They didn’t have the patience to wait even though they knew they were losing money by selling to bulkers, and they don’t work hard enough to bring in new members. So even though they had planned to produce over 50 tonnes of coffee this year, they have produced only seven!"

To guarantee employment for the station’s permanent staff and to diversify the association’s revenues, Janvier Gasasira tries to come up with ideas for using the station outside the coffee season: a coffee-tasting room, a store or a little bar, perhaps.

"We could breed rabbits there," suggests Jean Damassène Truagireasu, a Kopakama member. "Or plant a vegetable garden with tomatoes and onions," says Samuel Ndekezi, another member.

The ideas take shape little by little, and everyone promises to increase production the following year and take their crops to the station. For 2005, it will be a hungry year for Kibuye, but the producers have high hopes for next year.

The coffee of hope
Coffee is not the only source of subsistence for producers in the project area, since all of them grow their own food. Still, it is an important source of income, considering that most of them earn less than a dollar a day. For those who take advantage of the opportunities and make good use of the profits, coffee could give them a chance to dream as well.

Source: IFAD

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