President Kagame commends Maraba coffee farmers

The President of the Republic of Rwanda, H.E. Paul Kagame visited Maraba District of Butare Province on Thursday to inspect a new Coffee Washing Station and a communications centre.

The Maraba Coffee Washing Station is a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture Through Research and Linkages (PEARL), which links two American Universities to the Maraba Coffee Growers Cooperative, Abahuzamugambi, National University of Rwanda, ISAR and OCIR Café.

These linkages have enabled Maraba coffee growers to access the US coffee market through the Fair Trade Movement. Abahuzamugambi will be selling their coffee to Community Coffee, a leading US coffee company, at US$ 3 per kilo, a price significantly higher than the world market price. Seventeen tonnes of high quality Maraba Arabica Bourbon Coffee is currently awaiting export.

At a recent coffee quality test in the US, Maraba Bourbon Arabica was graded the second best in the world. Maraba coffee is a very special and unique type of Arabica coffee coming from 100% Bourbon coffee trees. It is well known for its full-bodied flavour, which has no astringency or after-taste.

President Kagame congratulated Abahuzamugambi, PEARL/USAID, Butare University and other individuals and organisations involved in the project on Maraba coffee being ranked second best in the world. He said that while Rwanda cannot compete with other coffee growing nations in terms of the volume of exports, it can compete favourable in quality terms. He said that as Rwandan coffee growers gain more experience and work closely with industry experts, there is no reason why Rwandan coffee should not be ranked the best in the world.

President Kagame urged Rwandans as a whole to realise that in today's global economy, wealth can be realised only by adding value to exports or by developing a knowledge-based economy. He urged other Rwandans to emulate the Maraba coffee project and add value to their produce.

Earlier, President Kagame inspected a communications centre at the Maraba District headquarters. The communications centre is jointly run by Butare University and the Maraba District administration. The objective of the centre is to provide farmers and business people with information and training to enable them increase their productivity.

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