A farmer tending to a coffee plantation.
Rwanda Coffee farmer’s federation has secured Rwf60 million in funding to purchase internationally accepted coffee packaging bags that will enable them to leverage coffee export on global markets.
The funds donated to Rwanda Coffee Cooperatives Federation (RCCF) are part of efforts to sustain the coffee sector which has been supported in the last eight years by a coffee promotion project- The Project for Rural Income through Exports (PRICE) under the National Agriculture Export Development Board (NAEB).
Theopista Nyiramahoro, the chairperson of RCCF said that the coffee bags are part of a sustainable plan that will enable farmers to expand their coffee export market as the PRICE project closes its activities at the end of the year.
“This is one of the sustainable plans that we have started after witnessing growth in coffee produce among farmers. We have already ordered for the sacks from Bangladesh which will arrive by December, so that we can embark on distribution,” Uwamahoro said during a field visit to activities that were supported by PRICE.
Uwamahoro said that the coffee sacks distribution program is expected to benefit 18,700 farmers grouped in 86 coffee farmer’s cooperatives in 14 districts, who have been supported by the Price project to increase their coffee produce through offering free skills training among others.
Jean Claude Mugabo, 47, a coffee farmer in Gatsibo district who has benefited from Price coffee farming training started with 600 trees in 2006 earning less than Rwf500, 000 per season to now Rwf1 million per season.
Mugabo says that using modern packaging will leverage their coffee prices which currently stand at Rwf219 per kilogram.
Rwanda has a national coffee production targets ranging from 267, 000 to 420,000 bags per year.
