Maraba Coffee
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Maraba Coffee (Kinyarwanda: Ikawa ya Maraba, French: Café de Maraba) is a fair trade coffee produced in the Maraba area of southern Rwanda (coordinates: ). The coffee plants are the Bourbon variety of the C. arabica species and are grown by around 2,000 small holder farmers, operating under the Abahuzamugambi association, on the fertile volcanic soils at altitudes between 1,700 and 2,100 metres (5,577–6,889 ft). The association was formed in 1999 by the farmers themselves, and from 2000 was supported by the National University of Rwanda (NUR), and the Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL), an organisation set up with help from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and various US educational establishments to provide loans and expert advice to the association. The cooperative has vastly improved the lives of growers in the area, many of whom has lost family members in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and can now send their children to school and receive good healthcare for the first time.
The useful part of the coffee plant is the fruit, which is hand picked by the farmers, mostly during the rainy season between March and May, and then brought in baskets to a purpose-built washing station in Maraba. There the skins are removed and the beans extracted from the centre and dried. At several stages of this process, the beans are sorted according to quality, both by machine and by hand. The farmers are given credits dependent on the amount and quality provided and paid at the end of each month.
The beans are sold on to various roasting companies, with the highest quality beans going to Union Coffee Roasters, a company based in the United Kingdom and Community Coffee, based in Louisiana. Union sells to various cafes in the UK as well as the Sainsbury's supermarket chain, which sells it on under the banner Rwanda Maraba Bourbon Coffee, while Community use it in conjunction with other coffees in some of their speciality blends. Good beans are also bought by Rwanda Specialty Coffee Roasters, which sells the coffee in Rwanda (mostly in higher end shops in the capital, Kigali). Maraba coffee is also now brewed into a beer, which won its category in the World Beer Cup 2006.
History
Rwandans have been growing coffee since colonial times[1894-1990: A history of Rwanda and Burundi] People's history. (Accessed 22 May 2006) but until 1999 the product was classed below Grade C (the standard grade traded on the global coffee markets[New York Coffee Exchange Overview] coffeeresearch.org (Accessed 22 May 2006)), as the smallholders did not have the means to wash and prepare their coffee cherries to the specifications and within the time limit needed to produce excellent coffee. This meant that buyers would pay only US$0.33 per kilogramme, and the farmers were living in extreme poverty.[Coffee, Fairtrade & Rwanda] Page 4 (PDF) VSO Rwanda Global Awareness Syndicate.(Accessed 21 May 2006)
To solve this problem, an association was founded in 1999 by 220 coffee growers in the Maraba district, (part of the former Butare Province). The association was named Abahuzamugambi, which is a Kinyarwanda word referring to people who work as a team to achieve a result. The farmers hoped that by forming the association they would be able to increase revenue by selling directly to exporters in Kigali rather than having to operate through one of the intermediate transport company, which tend to pay very little for the crops they buy. The profits from the enterprise were divided amongst the farmers in the association, and used to buy tools, fertilisers and seeds to increase yields.[The Maraba Bourbon Coffee Story...] Partnership to Enhance Agriculture in Rwanda (PEARL) (Accessed 21 May 2006)
In 2000, following a plea from Maraba mayor Alphonse Gasana, the National University of Rwanda (UNR), based in nearby Butare, decided to enter a partnership with Maraba district to promote development. Then in 2001, the Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL) was founded, involving USAID, Michigan State University, Texas A&M University and various Rwandan bodies including NUR, the national agricultural research institute (ISAR) and the Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management (KIST). The aim of PEARL was to channel the resources of the unversities into rural areas to promote agricultural improvement, in order to increase revenues. PEARL director Tim Schilling visited Maraba in February 2001, and the organisation offered to work with Abahuzamugambi to try and improve the coffee quality sufficiently to sell to the speciality coffee market in the United States.
The first step was to build a proper washing station in Maraba. This removes sugar from the coating of the coffee bean, which is found underneath the skin. It is essential to remove this sugar within 12 hours of picking, otherwise the flavour is impaired.[Coffee, Fairtrade & Rwanda] Page 8 (PDF) VSO Rwanda Global Awareness Syndicate.(Accessed 30 May 2006). The first station was built in July 2001 in the Cyarumbo sector, close to the main road, using funding from UNR, the Office des Cultures Industrielles du Rwanda (OCIR-Café), ACDI/VOCA and the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR). This was very late in the harvest season, so only 200 kilogrammes (441 lb) of that year's harvest was able to be washed, but the results from that small sample were reasonably good so the station was upgraded in order to be able to process more coffee by the 2002 harvest. A pipeline was built using ACDI/VOCA funding to bring mineral water from Mount Huye to the upgraded station, and it opened in March 2002.
For the 2002 harvest, a certification system was introduced to ensure that beans brought to the station were of suitable quality. Around half of the Abahuzamugambi membership attained this certification. With quality thus assured, the association could start to look for serious buyers from the speciality markets in Europe and North America.
International Acceptance
PEARL brought a speciality coffee expert, Sam Olivieri, to Rwanda to try to find a market and he in turn put them in touch with Community Coffee, a coffee seller based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Community were initially reluctant to get involved, but Olivieri assured them that the project was adequately set-up and well supported by PEARL and the US universities.["Cup of Good Hope"] Rwandan Embassy in the UK Newsletter No. 9: March 2003 (PDF, page 13) (Accessed 24 May 2006), taken from article Cup of Good Hope in The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report, 7 Jan 2003 issue Samples were sent to Louisiana, and found to be of good quality, so in June 2002 a Community representative, Carl Leonard, visited Maraba. Leonard was received at Maraba by Rwandan president Paul Kagame, an indication that the government attached great importance to the project["President Kagame commends Maraba coffee farmers"] Government of Rwanda official website (Accessed 24 May 2006). Leonard was very impressed with the quality and the support being offered so agreed to purchase an 18,160 kilogramme (40,000 lb) container of Maraba beans, paying an above-average US$3 per kilogramme, which they roasted gradually and blended into one of their gourmet coffees. Community were keen to highlight the philanthropic angle of this purchase, referring to it as "relationship coffee". The deal is believed to be the first direct contract between an American roaster and an African coffee cooperative.
Comic Relief were also taking a keen interest in Maraba. Their 2001 Red Nose Day campaign had brought in £55 million for projects in the UK and Africa, of which some was pledged to the Association des Veuves du Genocide (AVEGA), an association of widows of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.["Rwanda's genocide could have been prevented. The UN let people die and now it watches as the survivors die"] The Observer March 28, 2004. (Accessed 24 May 2006). Nick Lander, who visited Rwanda for the charity, discovered that many of the Maraba smallholders were also members of AVEGA, which meant Comic Relief were able to provide funding and support for the project. Lander approached Union Coffee Roasters, a British coffee roasting company, and persuaded them to get involved. Having been sent samples of the product in 2001 and made a preliminary visit in February 2002, UCR returned in August of that year bringing with them officials from the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO). The FLO did a thorough inspection of the Maraba site and granted certification, making Maraba coffee the first Rwandan cooperative to gain Fairtrade status. This achieved, Union did a final quality test with the beans in September and were extremely pleased with the results, and reported that they were "able to identify clear, clean citrus notes and sweet milk chocolate low-tones" in the coffee.["Project Past and Future - Quality and Fairtrade"] Union Coffee Roasters (Accessed 24 May 2006) UCR were so impressed with the Maraba coffee that they bought all the remaining produce from the 2002 harvest.
In early 2003, the product was finally released onto the UK markets via Sainsbury's supermarkets,.[Rwandan coffee hits Sainsbury's] Developments, the DFID International Development magazine, Issue 25. (Accessed 20 May 2006) which agreed to sell the product in all 350 of its stores in the run up to that year's Red Nose Day.[Project Past and Future - Return to Rwanda] Union Coffee Roasters (Accessed 24 May 2006). The coffee was sold under the banner "Maraba Bourbon Union Coffee from Rwanda", and proved successful, with US$35,000 net profits realised by the Abahuzamugambi Cooperative in 2003. 70% of these profits were divided between the farmers, who each received US$0.75 per kilogramme for the coffee they had provided, an amount three times that payed to other coffee growers in Rwanda, while the remaining 30% was invested back in the cooperative, and spent on buying calcium carbonate to improve quality.
[The Abahuzamugambi Coffee Cooperative] PEARL project official web site (Accessed 1 June 2006)
Moves towards independence
Beginning in 2003, PEARL began to pull out of providing support for the Abahuzamugambi Cooperative, as it felt the operation had become self-sufficient. The cooperative was able to provide its growers with loans, leading to vastly improved living standards - they were able to afford medical insurance for their families, send their children to school, improve their homes and invest in livestock. A cooperative bank was opened in the village in March, enabling farmers to maintain and manage their own funds locally, rather thank having to trek the long distance to Butare.["Project Past and Future - Hope for a better future"] Union Coffee Roasters (Accessed 27 May 2006)
The future
Maraba coffee continues to thrive, with more interest being generated. In 2006, the Swedish Minister for Development Co-operation and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carin Jamtin, visited Maraba with a view to extending cooperation between Sweden and the Rwandan farmers and ultimately exposing Maraba coffee to the Swedish speciality market."Swedish Minister Praises Maraba Coffee Growers" [The New Times], Kigali, 10 May 2006. [Reproduced at AllAfrica.com]. (Accessed 27 May 2006).Geography and climate
Maraba coffee is grown in the south of Rwanda at coordinates , roughly 12 kilometres (7 mi) from Butare and 150 kilometres (93 mi) from the capital, Kigali. The project was started in the Maraba District of Butare Province, but these entities were replaced under local government organisation in 2006[Provinces of Rwanda] Statoids.com (Accessed 1 June 2006), and the area is now part of Huye District in the South Province. The area is very hilly, being situated close to the Western Rift Valley and the montane Nyungwe Forest and featuring rich volcanic soilsInformation from [label on the back of the coffee packet]. The coffee is grown at altitudes between 1,700 and 2,100 metres (5,577–6,889 ft) above sea level, often on steep hillsides with terrace farming. The area experiences an average of 115 centimetres (45 in) of rainfall annually[Rwanda Climate] Nation's Encyclopedia (Accessed 1 June 2006), the majority falling during the rainy season of March to May[Rwanda map and information page] WorldAtlas.com (Accessed 30 May 2006), which is the major harvesting season for the coffee. The temperature is slightly cooler than the national average, due to the high altitude, averaging around 20 °C (68 °F), although there is little seasonal variation.
Production cycle
The main harvesting season for coffee in Rwanda is during the major rainy season, which runs from March to the end of May. During that period the farmers spend most of each day picking the cherries by hand and then, in the evening, they carry them to the washing station in traditional baskets woven from banana leaves. This journey may take several hours. Technicians employed at the station carry out an initial hand-sorting process to pick out the best cherries, which are those with a deep red colour, and return the remainder to the grower to be sold on to markets outside the Maraba process, at a lower price. The technicians then weigh the cherries and allocate money to the grower at a rate of US$0.10 per kilogramme. This money accumulates and the association pays it each fortnight into farmers' bank accounts.
As soon as the cherries have been selected, the technicians start the washing process, since delay can cause fermentation of the sugary coating surrounding the bean and ruination of the coffee flavour.[Coffee, Fairtrade & Rwanda] Page 9 (PDF) VSO Rwanda Global Awareness Syndicate.(Accessed 30 May 2006) The first part of the process is a deep tank at the top of the hill, into which the selected cherries are thrown. The best cherries sink to the bottom, from where they pass through a machine which removes the skin. The technicians remove any floating cherries process them in the same way as the others later on, but the cooperative sells these to domestic markets for less than the speciality coffee price. Upon exiting the tank, the beans are fed through a de-skinning and selection machine, of which the cooperative possess three. These remove the skin and most of the sugary coating, before running the individual beans through a vibrating colander, separating the very highest quality Grade A beans from those labelled Grade B. These beans are sent separately down the hill in a water chute with a 1% gradient. This process allows for further separation of beans based on quality, with around 15 tanks available at the bottom for capture of the different types. Once thus separated, the beans are kept submerged for a period - 2 days for the best and 15-20 hours for the lesser beans - which causes a small amount of fermentation to take place, eating up the remainder of the sugar without significantly impairing the flavour.
Following this period in the water tanks, the technicians wash the beans several times to remove the remains of the skin and coating, and then put them out on racks, shaded by a roof, to begin the drying process. Local women are emplyed to turn the beans regularly and technicians continue to spot and remove bad beans. A longer drying process of up to two weeks in the sun then follows (with provision for quick covering in the event of rain), again with constant turning. This last process reduces the water content of the bean from 40% to 12%.
Once sufficiently dry, the technicians move the beans to the technical centre in nearby Kizi. The association possesses various machines, housed in a warehouse up the side of the hill, which remove the parchment skins from the bean[Coffee, Fairtrade & Rwanda] Page 10 (PDF) VSO Rwanda Global Awareness Syndicate.(Accessed 8 June 2006). Employees then take the beans into the adjacent laboratory for the final quality control process - hand sorting - which is carried out by several experienced women from the project.[Coffee, Fairtrade & Rwanda] Page 11 (PDF) VSO Rwanda Global Awareness Syndicate.(Accessed 8 June 2006) The beans thus selected are bagged up and labelled according to their quality, as determined at various stages of the process, and then stored in the compound's warehouse ready to be bought by exporters and customers within Rwanda.
Coffee Beer
In late 2004, the Maraba coffee phenomenon was extended into the alcoholic beverages market, in the form of a coffee beer[Rwandan coffee used to make beer] BBC News, 8 December 2004. (Accessed 23 May 2006). The London-based Meantime Brewery came up with the idea, intended as a form of iced cappucino or digestif, but with alcohol content. The company's owner, Alastair Hook, tasted various coffees including some from Brazil and Colombia but decided the Maraba bean was best suited to his purpose - he detected hints of vanilla and chocolate in the coffee, which he felt was more suitable than the more nutty and bitter south American coffees. The beer has an alcohol content of 4% and is described by Mr Hook as having a "silky, velvety character". The beer is sold in larger branches of Sainsbury's and in some pubs and clubs, and was formerly one of only two Fairtrade beers available on the UK market.[Fairtrade certified products: Beer and Ale] (PDF) The Fairtrade Foundation (Accessed 23 May 2006). As of 2006, the beer has lost its fairtrade status due to a reduction in the proportion of coffee and an increased alcohol content (now 6%), but it is still made using Maraba beans.[Gold Medal Coffee Beer] Meantime Brewing (Accessed 24 May 2006) It is the only coffee beer available in the British Isles., and won the Gold medal for the coffee flavoured beer category at the 2006 Beer World Cup[2006 Brewers Association World Beer Cup Winners] Brewers Association (Accessed 24 May 2006). The beer contains the same caffeine content as a cup of coffee.
References and notes
External links
- [Union Coffee Roasters Rwanda Website]
- [Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL)]
- [Coffee, Fairtrade & Rwanda Booklet]
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