Historically, Rwandan farmers have grown only low-grade beans as a cash
crop and almost quit growing coffee entirely after the genocidal civil
war that killed more than half a million Rwandans in 1994.
In 2001, Rwandan farmers started producing specialty coffee for the
first time with help from the U.S. Agency for International Development
and another group, Agribusiness Development Activity in Rwanda,
Seattle-based Starbucks said in a fact sheet provided to The Associated
Press.
The agencies taught farmers how to cultivate premium arabica coffee
beans, and secure bank loans needed to buy equipment and build
coffee-washing stations, where coffee beans are fermented, then washed.
In its last visit to Rwanda, Starbucks picked two mills to work with,
both of them in Cyangugu, a province in the southeastern part of the
country along the border with the Republic of Congo and Burundi. Both
mills produce coffee grown at high altitudes - as high as 5,500 feet -
in soil rich with volcanic ash.
Dub Hay, Starbucks' senior vice president of coffee, would not disclose
how much Rwandan farmers were paid for their Starbucks beans, but said
the company pays a global average of $1.28 per pound to its producers,
and follows green coffee purchasing guidelines that reward performance
in several environmental and social categories. The company said the
coffee it's buying is grown by small farmers who have about 175 trees
per farm.
The above i think came out of seattle on Feb 28th. it was cut from a yahoo page and
came to me via the current USAID/Rwanda Health advisor, from Kigali.
My neighbors in Kigali think this is great for rwanda and i am going to agree.
Hopefully they are re-investing in the people more-so than their price per pound green.
You would think starbucks brokers its own stuff. Anybody know about this???
I mean directly from the farm handling shipping and all that, ive assumed.
I do wish they disclosed a little more about their social and environmental investments.
I really dont know what the Rwanda Market has been like. How much is sold and how much is leftover (supply
driven price). Last year I really really liked what i was tasting out of rwanda Gatare.
What is market driven society coming too?
word- im enjoying some rwanda gatare '05 this morning
-joel
