It was a great privilege finally catching up with Josias Harerimana, the founder and CEO of Beautiful Coffee Rwanda (BCR henceforth).
Before delving into why this expose on BCR, it is appropriate, I think, to first provide some background on the man behind the enterprise. Born in 1982, and married with a kid, Josias Harerimana holds a bachelor’s degree with honours in Biomedical laboratory sciences, as well as a Master’s degree in Public health and Food studies. He has also worked for over 13 years in the health sector, as well as nearly a decade working with coffee cooperatives and companies.
About Beautiful Coffee Rwanda (BCR)
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Beautiful Coffee Rwanda (BCR) is a “fair trade” social enterprise supporting farmers’ partnership to build a sustainable business model together. As a fair-trade company, BCR is helping, and has helped, farmers to build sustainable business models by introducing fair trade certification, and other certificates to cooperatives, as well as exposing these entities to international buyers. Broadly speaking, BCR partners with a host of coffee cooperatives such as Coocamu, Bwishaza coffee, Gishyita coffee, Karora coffee – all of which are profiled below.
The COOCAMU coffee cooperative (Rutsiro District)
Headquartered in the Rutsiro District, Musasa Sector (Western Province) on the shores of Lake Kivu, COOCAMU was founded April 2010 Producers: 368 smallholders (82 members are women). The COOCAMU coffee cooperative is located on Kivu belt region, where the rich soil, high altitudes and abundant rainfall give the bourbon coffee trees dotting the slopes above Lake Kivu the best environment to yield the best Arabica beans. It contributes to the community development through taxes payment and supporting Gabiro Cell in different ways and train farmers on Best Agricultural Practices or BAP. Cooperatives were trained about Fair Trade and on getting this certificate, cooperatives will be able to sell their specialty coffee to international buyers while accessing fair price, environmental and health protection, fair labour conditions and community development. Cooperatives will become self-reliance and recognize on international level BC Korea buy fair trade certified coffee from COOCAMU since 2017 COOCAMU got 2 new buyers (Olam & DR Weakfield) due to BCR. Cooperative capacity building through different trainings, coaching & follow up certification coaching (FLO/WFTO, RA etc.) Quality improvement training World coffee fair exhibition preparation & participation export promotion training. COOCAMU has been Fair Trade certified and currently COOCAMU specialty coffee is distributed in Rwanda, in the Republic of Korea and Europe. Coffee is marketed in Republic of Korea by Fair trade company (Beautiful Coffee Korea).
Bwishaza Coffee Cooperative (Rutsiro Western Province)
Located in Gihango Sector on the Eastern shore of Lake Kivu, the Bwishaza coffee cooperative was founded in February 2010 Producers: 593 smallholder farmers (203 women; 390 men). The Bwishaza Cooperative cultivates its high-quality coffee near a Peak Congo Nile Mountain near Kivu Belt. By producing high-end coffee and employing a majority female workforce, the cooperative ensures maximum benefits to local families. In 2010, the Cooperative built a washing station with funds provided by the Investor KCC with Project Techno Serve. To pay this support, the Bwishaza cooperative supplied parchment coffee to KCC and pay back the loan, and the net profit were calculated after deduction of loan annually.
Karora coffee cooperative (Karongi, Western Province)
Located in Mubuga (Karongi) on the Eastern shore of Lake Kivu, Karora was also founded in 2010. The cooperative has 16 smallholders in its membership. Due to the low number of members who have many coffee trees the management of coffee quality from farms to the washing station is easier than other cooperatives and to maintain their farms in organic conditions for getting organic certificate was much easier than the other cooperatives discussed in this article.
Gishyita coffee cooperative (Gishyita Sector)
Headquartered in the Gishyita Sector Region, also on the Eastern shore of Lake Kivu, KARONGI, Western Rwanda, the Gishyita cooperative was founded in March 2010 and has about 89 smallholder farmers (26 women; 63 men) as members. All women members and men’s members wives are trained about Best Agricultural Practices, and the women are motivated in coffee processing techniques – from Seed to Cup.
How does it all work – from seed to cup?
Processing – The coffee is grown organically using compost manure and the cherries are carefully handpicked and washed with fresh clean water then sun dried on raised screens above the shores of the Lake Kivu. A light orange-blossom aroma with soft acidity and delightful body this Rwanda Kivu coffee displays sweet mandarin and caramel flavours “
Production capacity – COOCAMU produces 4 containers, Bwishaza coffee produces 4 containers, Both Gishyita coffee and Karora coffee produce 2 containers each.
In his presentation in Korea in 2018, Josias was optimistic about the future of BCR and its partners. As he pointed out, “All the cooperatives are cultivating across Kivu belt region which is high altitude zone with volcanic soil and favourable climate for producing quality coffee.
As he further points out, all the coffee produced score above 85%, all buyers who visited the cooperatives liked this coffee as it’s a specialty one.” He went on to state that, “by buying this coffee, you will support financially the farmers who spend their time in coffee plantation and processing to make sure they’re producing quality coffee from seed to cup. It’s very important to continuously support these small cooperatives due to their effort in taking care of coffee but also by producing specialty one.” Where does the money go? To this, Josias was clear, “the money you buy their coffee return to farmers as an investment to their plantations and their family welfare.”
Ultimately, there’s a context to all of this. It was only recently in June 2022, on Africa Science Focus, that the first G25 African Coffee Summit took place in Nairobi, Kenya, to find out what the continent’s coffee future looks like. We hear from Elijah Gichuru, the director of the Coffee Research Institute at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, about climate impacts on coffee production and consumption. And, coffee farmer Prudence Jackie tells us how a local collaboration is supporting small-scale female farmers, who provide the majority of the labour in the coffee industry.
A final note for the curious reader about Rwanda
Here’s what the Government of Rwanda: Administrative structure (www.gov.rw) says about the administrative structure of the country: Rwanda is currently composed of two layers of government (central and local) and of six administrative entities: These structures, which were reorganised under the 2005 reform, are complementary. The country is divided into four Provinces and the City of Kigali which are also further divided into 30 districts. Moreover, the districts are further divided into 416 Sectors. Additionally, the sectors are further divided into 2148 cells and lastly, these cells are divided into 14837 villages. All these subdivisions are headed by different people at every level and they all have different roles though directing towards the same cause. The “Province” serves as a coordinating organ to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of Central Government planning, execution, and supervision of the decentralized services. It serves mainly as an advisor to the decentralized entities and coordinates development activities. There are four provinces and the City of Kigali – they consist of the Northern Province, Southern Province, Eastern Province and Western Province.