Rwanda is blessed with ideal coffee growing conditions that include high altitude, regular rain-fall, volcanic soils with good organic structure and an abundance of Bourbon. The vast majority of Rwandan coffee is produced by smallholders of which there are thought to be around half a million, with parcels of land often not much larger than just one hectare per family. On average, Rwandan smallholders own approximately 180 trees each.
This coffee is produced by 1,040 smallholder farmers with an average of 1 hectare (roughly 400 trees). The local washing station where all cherries for this coffee get delivered is called Gitega Hills. The station creates employment for the local area with 150 staff – 90% being women. Rwanda Trading Company export this coffee and have helped contribute to some great improvements for farmers in Rwanda.
In 2013 they implemented the Agribusiness Training Program (ATP) which has resulted in the following:
- 209% increase in household income
- 52,000 farmers trained since 2019
- 3.5million lbs of digitally traceable coffee in 2021
- 350,000 coffee seedling distrubuted in 2022
- $200k of financing to farmers in 2022
