With the production of roasted and instant coffee projected to rise, Rwanda should improve the quality of coffee further. The move will see the country earn $60m from coffee exports this year— a 21 per cent increase over 2006.
Last year, only $47m was earned from the coffee exports. At present, coffee producers in the country earn very little money from coffee trading.
The quality of the coffee produced at washing stations should remain competitive in order to be positioned on the specialty coffees market. Ocir café, Rwanda’s coffee authority, will have to play an active role through laboratory analysis.In 2006 there were 74 new coffee washing stations in use by various government and private owned coffee associations. With these facilities, the country managed to export at least 3,000 tonnes of fully washed coffee. The total quantity of all green coffee exported hit 26,000 tonnes.
Based on information from Ocir-café, 80 coffee washing stations are expected to be in use this year, with 6,000 tonnes of fully washed coffee expected to be produced and exported, as well as 31,000 tonnes of green-coffees, earning the country an expected $60 million.
Therefore the Rwandan coffee sector must break away from low production and poor quality. It is important to focus on a sector based strategy towards competitiveness on the international market.
Today, the cultivation of coffee involves more than 500,000 families and covers about 33,000 hectares, with approximately 80 million coffee plants.With the implementation of the new coffee sector development strategy established in 1998, coffee production in the country is improving progressively.
The New Times
