Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
24 July 2008
Kigali — From zero revenue in the year 2000, coffee now joins the growing list of products that Rwanda exports with receipts hitting some $15 (about 8.5 billion Francs) this year even before it ends, the Rwanda Coffee Authority said on Thursday.
The government agency earned $15 million from 5.512 tonnes of coffee exports in the first half of this year, up from $6.8 million of the 3.193 tonnes exported for the whole of last year.
The coffee sector has seen growth following intervention from the US Aid agency - USAID - that has injected some $16 million into production. U.S. coffee chain Starbucks has also been buying the same coffee and selling it in its shops across the US and Europe.
The firm has put up washing stations in the country that provide its chains with quality beans washed from the ground. Recently, it announced that it was to start selling Rwandan coffee in the Middle East in up to 10 countries.
The Coffee Authority - known here as ICIR-Café - which supervises the sector said in a statement that the increase is because of the timely application of fertilizers and pesticides, mulching and pruning by farmers. Attractive prices offered to the farmers also played a role, according to Mr. Alex Kanyankole, the Director General.
Though the authority is $10 million from meeting half their goal in the first six months of the year, Kanyankole said he is optimistic that the authority will meet its target by the end of the year saying that much output and revenue will be generated towards the end of the second half.
He said 25 per cent of what they will export this year is specialty coffee-coffee with zero defects which are not affected by price fluctuations on the international market.
Recently the sector faced challenges resulting from untimely application of fertilizers, untimely mulching and pruning by the coffee growers and smuggling of fertilizers by the coffee growers to the neighboring countries.
Coffee takes board of the list of what Rwanda is offering to bring in the much needed receipts that include tea, coffee, hides, minerals and tourism.
Some 70 million dollars entered government coffers from Cassitarite, Gold, Coltan and Wolfram last year. Tourism for its part garnered some 42 million dollars.
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