Partnership to Enhance Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL)

A group of 220 coffee growers in the District of Maraba, Butare Province, decided to form an Association in 1999 to increase their incomes by pooling their coffee harvest and selling directly to exporters based in Kigali. They named the Association, ABAHUZAMUGAMBI, which implies that together they will work to achieve the desired result. Profits were used to purchase fertilizers, farm tools, and vegetable seed for the members of the Association.

In 2000, Mr. Alphonse GASANA, the Mayor of Maraba, made the observation that despite the fact that Maraba was only one hill away from the National University of Rwanda; it nevertheless remained one of Rwanda’s poorest districts. Upon hearing this statement, the NUR Rector, Dr. Emile Rwamasirabo, agreed to enter into a formal relation with the district of Maraba to enhance its development.

In 2001, the USAID Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages, PEARL was initiated by Michigan State University and Texas A&M University in collaboration with NUR and other Rwandan partners. PEARL created an “Outreach Center” in Butare that had the mandate to provide the resources of NUR, ISAR and KIST to the rural communities for their development. As PEARL began to undertake different studies in the rural areas to identify community needs and thus activities, it became clear that the rural communities around Butare needed everything including credit, tools, seed, technology, roads, markets, transport, etc. This led PEARL to make the decision to focus only on those rural interventions that increased incomes in the rural areas.

Early in February 2001, Dr. Emile Rwamasirabo took PEARL Director, Dr. Schilling to Maraba to meet the Mayor and several of Maraba’s producer associations including CONFIGI and Abahuzamugambi. It was here that Abahuzamugambi requested PEARL to assist them further increase their incomes in the coffee sector. Dr. Schilling agreed to work with Abahuzamugambi and suggested that PEARL assist the association shoot for the American Specialty coffee market by improving the coffee quality through paying attention to rigid production protocols and through proper processing the coffee.

In order to achieve the specifications of the American Market, a coffee washing station had to be constructed to produce fully washed arabica, the bare minimum requirement for any premiums to paid on the international markets. Since PEARL did not have a large construction budget nor did Abahuzamugambi have significant capital, PEARL worked with UNR, OCIR-Café, ACDI/VOCA, ISAR and local government to put together the funding necessary to build a washing station in Maraba.

No one in Rwanda seemed to know much about producing fully washed coffee. The large UPROCA station at Nkora had been not been functional for years despite efforts to rehabilitate it in 1999 following the Schluter and Finney MINAGRI report. PEARL decided to use the ISAR mini-station as the Maraba model since coffee produced at ISAR obtained good comments on quality at the Specialty Coffee Association meeting in the U.S. and the fact that the ISAR station required no electricity or fancy machinery.

In April of 2001, workers at UNR, PEARL, OCIR/Café, ISAR and Abahuzamugambi evaluated the district of Maraba for possible washing station sites. The sector of Cyrambo was chosen due to its proximity to coffee, water and the paved road. A small station was constructed in 2001 and inaugurated in July. Unfortunately, the coffee harvest was ending at that time and only 200 kilograms of fully washed coffee was produced. This coffee was nevertheless tested at OCIR-Café with positive (but not earthshaking) results. Nevertheless, the results were good enough to lead PEARL and Abahuzamugambi to increase the station’s capacity for the 2002 year.

Until this time, many meetings were held and many consultants came to Rwanda to talk about coffee and quality but no one seemed to actually be doing anything about producing a quality product. As such, PEARL met with ACDI/VOCA who agreed to assist with funding a larger capacity station for Abahuzamugambi and try to produce a significant quantity of high quality coffee and try to sell the product on the American market.

One considerable expense in building the larger station was in bringing pure spring water from the Mount Huye source to the washing station. Abahuzamugambi approached RSSP who agreed to fund the water project for the station. Unfortunately, Abahuzamugambi and PEARL were unable to meet all requirements of RSSP and the time was slipping away so Abahuzamugambi requested ACDI/VOCA to fund the water line. They agreed and finally the station was in operation by the end of March 2002.

While completing the washing station in early 2002, PEARL worked very closely with Abahuzamugambi and OCIR Café to organize the producers to bring high quality coffee cherries to the station. In order to do this, they decided to create a system of “Certification” of the coffee farmers. The requirements for certification included:

Possessing 200 or more trees of the old “Bourbon” varieties of the 50s, 60s, and 70s
Proper execution of mulching
Proper tree pruning
Use of fertilizer and manure

These requirements eliminated half of the membership of Abahuzamugambi and thus they had to recruit new members who met the requirements and thus were certified. Abahuzamugambi then approached the Banque Populaire for a line of credit to purchase cherries and to operate the station based on a business plan that PEARL and ACDI/VOCA produced. The BP agreed to extend a line of credit for 45,000,000frw to Abahuzamugambi with OCIR Café guaranteeing 50% of the credit.

Now Abahuzamugambi had 450 certified members and a line of credit. PEARL worked with them to put into place a management system for the station and establish strict quality control procedures. Although Abahuzamugambi did not possess a lot of management capability, they had sons and daughters of the growers who were unemployed high school graduates. Five high school sons and daughters were hired by Abahuzamugambi to provide most of the management of the Station. Finally, after nightmarish organizational difficulties the station began to function on its own by the end of April 2002.

PEARL hired a “Specialty Coffee” Market Expert, Dr. Sam Olivieri who assisted Abahuzamugambi make an important market connection with one of his former clients, Community Coffee of Louisiana. Afterwards, Abahuzamugambi succeeded in producing 50% of its 80-ton target: 40 tons of high quality parchment coffee. Samples were sent to Community Coffee in Louisiana who appreciated its quality and agreed to come to Rwanda in July 2002 to see Abahuzamugambi and possibly purchase coffee from them assuming the quality was equal to the samples or better.

Due to the importance of selling a high quality Rwandan product to a premium U.S. Company, President Paul Kagame agreed to greet the coffee buyer from Community Coffee at Maraba. Indeed, Community Coffee buyer, Carl Leonard was overwhelmed with the strong commitment of Rwanda’s government, the high quality of the coffee and the future potential of Rwanda as a source of “specialty coffee” for the American market. Mr. Leonard agreed to purchase 18 tons of Maraba coffee at the price of $1.36 per pound, a price that is almost 3 times the international market price of $0.50.

Later in 2002, John Schluter, of Schluter Trading Company in Switzerland suggested the Abahuzamugambi Cooperative to Union Roasters of London and Comic Relief who were looking for a high quality coffee produced by widows of the 1994 genocide that could be certified FairTrade. Since the Maraba Cooperative is made up of predominantly women farmers, many widowed through the genocide, Union Roasters visited the cooperative in 2002, became overwhelmed with the people and the coffee and purchased the remaining tonnage of coffee. On February 13, 2003, Sainsbury’s, a large U.K supermarket chain, announced the launching of the “MARABA BOURBON” Union Coffee from Rwanda coffee in all of its 350 stores throughout England.

As a direct result of this work, the Maraba Cooperative realized a net profit of $35,000 in 2003. Profits were shared among the growers who received $0.75 per kilo (390 frw/kg) for their parchment coffee. This premium price was nearly three times that received by other Rwandan coffee farmers. As a result, hundreds of children of the growers are now able to attend school, medicines are available in farmer homes, and most of their houses have been improved or renovated.

In 2003, the Abahuzamugambi Cooperative took drastic measures to increase coffee quality and spent 30% of its profits on the purchase of Calcium Carbonate or lime. The application of lime to the highly acidic soils of Southern Rwanda should result in increased cup quality due to the higher nutrient absorbs ion capacity of the coffee plant. The Cooperative already has two contracts, one with Union Coffee Roasters of London for a minimum purchase of 18 tons and one with Community Coffee for a minimum purchase of 18 tons. Final purchase price and quantity will depend on 2003 quality. Premiums from the two minimum quantities at 2002 prices will net a profit of approximately $50,000 plus additional sales of remaining 50 tons of parchment coffee.

In discussing issues of sustainability of the Cooperative once the USAID project PEARL is over, Dr. Timothy Schilling states that PEARL is taking all measures to insure sustainability of the business without help from donors. One key way is in the multiplication of the Maraba success in other nearby districts of Southern Rwanda. Today, there are three new Cooperatives in the area and the idea is to form an Association of Southern Rwanda Fine Coffee Producers, ASORFICOP. In doing so, a critical mass of high quality single origin coffee will be able to command considerable profits allowing the Association to hire a “front office” in Butare to handle marketing and export. This “front office” is the sustainability key. Highly trained and experienced UNR graduates working with PEARL will be “hired” by the ASORFICOP to set up and manage this office thus weaning the Cooperatives from the donors.

As a direct result of the Maraba success, 8 new wet processing centers were built in 2003.