Rwanda 2023 – Our origin trip

In 2019 we started our partnership with Emmanuel and the team at Baho Coffee in Rwanda. Due to the unforeseen pandemics however, it wasn’t until this April when we could finally step foot in the land of thousand hills. 

A tiny landlocked East African nation, Rwanda has had over a century long, complicated history with coffee (and colonialism),  which is a history that is inescapable when one is there. After our arrival to Kigalil, we dedicated the first day to learning more about this history and to pay respect to the past, and the future the people of Rwanda were building. But what does this future for modern day Rwanda look like, and how is it linked to Coffee? Well in large part it can be accredited to the government of Rwanda and their National Coffee Strategy, the tireless efforts of the 400,000+ small producers and landholders who have elevated their focus on the production of higher quality coffee cherries, and in small part, the international coffee community who support and invest at origin through partnerships and collaborations.  such as the one our R & D team traveled to develop further.

Our second day in Rwanda marked the beginning of our journey up, down and around a good number of those 1000 hills Rwanda is famous for. Now with the capital in our review, we headed north east towards Gatsibo District in the Eastern Province. This is the part of the country that shares the border with Tanzania and Uganda, and also the location of the Humure Washing Station in the Remera Sector. This station is where one of our constellations, the traditional honey Fulu ANS, is processed and is managed by Straton Nzaramb and his team. One of the larger washing stations of Baho, Humure is responsible for processing 2500mt of cherries each harvest, and has the capacity for washed, honey and natural processing. After a thorough tour by Humure’s agronomist Charles Mvuyekure, we prepared ourselves for the onward journey to Gitoki Washing Station in the neighboring Gitoki Sector. As of this moment Gitoki isn’t a site processing any of our lots, but it was still an important visit nonetheless. Here we organized a processing training session with all the station managers throughout the country. It was a great opportunity to share everyone’s experiences and insight with each other and collectively plan and create the targets and objectives that will evolve our partnership further.

The third day had us traveling to the Southern Province of Rwanda, to the Nyaruguru District, Ngoma Sector, and the location of the Fugi Washing Station. At this spot, our anaerobic natural Segin VVB is processed by the guiding hands of Station Manager Ahprodice Munyangaju.

Receiving 600mt of cherries from the 1,189 neighboring smallholder farmers, Fugi Washing Station is equipped for all processing methods, with a huge emphasis on cherry selection and sorting. It is an excellent example of a fully equipped, well functioning station with a highly skilled team behind it, and because of this it is used frequently as a site for training and education programs for farmers and the greater coffee community that supports the district.  

Following the visit to Fugi, we continued onwards in the Nyaruguru District for our planned community session with Dr. Naasson Nduwamungu, and the 150+ farmers who contribute their cherries to Fugi´s production. As I mentioned in the previous post Dr Nasson is the Community Outreach Coordinator who has been working alongside MTC and Baho on our breast cancer prevention project. His dedication and tireless efforts ensures that the greater coffee community has access to the information and resources that reduces the risks of later stage cancers. 

Before I continue on with the fourth day of our visit, for context it should be noted that Rwanda has four seasons, two which are wet and two that are dry. These wet seasons are then classified as the long and the short rains. MTC’s planned visit of course coincided with the peak of the long rain season (March to May).  The long extensive rains leaves the land open to large amounts of absorption, where in times of drought is essential to replenish the underwater table reserves, however in times of prolonged rain creates conditions for floods and landslides. 

From the Southern District we made our way west through the Nyungwe Forest National Park to the shores of Lake Kivu, where Ngoma Washing Station of the Nyamasheke District is located (home of our Terra lot Ingoma). It wasn’t the easiest of routes,  as the rain and the flooding had caused many landslides, servelly reducing the accessibility for traveling in and out.  We got there though in the end, and were better for it, with Jean Claude, Ngoma’s station manager on hand to receive us and lead us through the tour of the station and its amenities. These visits to the stations are invaluable for us in the R and D team, as they allow for us to track the progress, cater to the stations capabilities and plan for the future stages. It is also an opportunity to communicate with the team and share knowledge and experiences with each other all in the name of coffee. The visit to Ngoma gave us the opportunity as well to share with the team their coffee roasted by roasters from Europe. 

Mother nature would have it that our trip had to be rerouted. The road and the bridge connecting us to the north of Lake Kivu and Bugoyi Washing Station of the Rustiro District, had been completely washed away. It is a shame we didn’t get the visit this year, as it is home to one of our top constellation lots from Rwanda Navi AMAR, but the conditions were so bad that even our  way out was heavily impacted by the landslides. We did however manage to visit a new station for us, the Muzu Washing Station of the Gakenke District. 

Our final day was a day of calibration back in Kigali, with Baho’s Q-lab manager Gentillee Ishimwe. Not only did we cup different processes and terroirs of Rwanda, but we also cupped processes planned for Rwanda this year, with samples from our partners in Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia and Kenya. It is a great exercise for us to identify the commonalities of the same recipes with different origins and varieties as well as the distinct differences that  make them unique. 

As harvest is still going on in some parts of Rwanda, we are a good while off before we will have samples of this year’s lots. But we will keep you updated on their progress and all the work at origin.