Rwanda’s Coffee Industry After 30 Years of Liberation

Every year on the 4th of July, Rwanda marks Liberation Day. As a country, we honour not only the struggle that brought an end to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, but also celebrate three decades of peace and development. For Gorilla’s Coffee, this is an opportunity to reflect on the growth of the coffee industry in Rwanda, and look at the role coffee continues to play in our country’s remarkable success story. 

Coffee, more specifically the Bourbon Arabica variety, has always been one of the nation’s main cash crops. Year round mild temperatures, even rainfall distribution and fertile volcanic soils make Rwanda the ideal coffee growing destination. Despite this, Rwanda’s coffee sector faced near collapse in the 1990s. 

The steep decline of global coffee prices in the late 1980s was a major blow to the coffee sector in Rwanda, worsened by the disintegration of the International Coffee Agreement (ICA) in 1989. Established in 1963, the ICA subjected participating countries to a production quota that prevented the market being flooded with supplies and the price crashing, thereby creating a stable coffee market and relatively high prices. 

As Rwanda produced a small quantity of coffee beans, the crop failed to garner attention from international importers. At the same time, the quality of Rwandan coffee was not sufficient for it to be sold at a premium. This led to significant losses, which affected farmers and Rwanda’s economy. Furthermore, the Genocide against the Tutsi led to the loss of skilled farmers, vital infrastructure, and the neglect or destruction of coffee trees. 

After 1994, Rwanda’s Government of National Unity, formed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi), revived coffee exports by overhauling the coffee industry. It became clear that the viability of smallholder production would depend on increasing domestic value addition, which is why, starting in 1998, the Government began the process of making Rwanda a producer of fully washed Arabica beans.

To aid this transition, a National Coffee Strategy (NCS) was developed in 2002 to position Rwanda as a premium quality, specialty grade coffee producing country. This called for expanding coffee washing infrastructure, skillbuilding amongst coffee growers and workers at coffee washing stations, as well as strengthening cooperatives and developing a Rwandan brand identity. Revisions to the NCS in 2006 and 2009 focused on mobilising the coffee value chain to meet increasingly stringent quality and traceability requirements. The importance of size, colour, taste, aroma qualities, efficient washing, drying and roasting was emphasised.

In line with the effort to keep as much of the value of coffee in the country as possible, the Rwanda Farmers Coffee Company (RFCC) was founded in 2009. With a large-scale roasting and packaging facility, RFCC can roast and package nine tons of coffee per day, most of which is sold under the renowned brand, Gorilla’s Coffee. The remainder of the roasted coffee is exported internationally through the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB).

Today, Rwanda’s coffee is grown by more than 400,000 smallholder farmers and their families, many of whom own less than a quarter-hectare of land each. To support these farmers, RFCC sources all of its coffee beans from five cooperatives across the country. One of these is COCAMU, a coffee growing cooperative made up of almost 400 farmers and based in Musasa Sector in Rutsiro District, by the shores of Lake Kivu. 

The single-origin beans are then processed in adherence to the highest standards of quality and sold both locally and internationally as specialty grade coffee. Furthermore, RFCC purchases coffee beans from cooperatives at a fair price, which shields farmers from the volatility of global coffee prices. In doing so, RFCC plays a vital role in Rwanda’s coffee ecosystem by providing a reliable market for smallholder farmers, and guaranteeing a premium price for Rwandan coffee globally.

In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, Rwanda exported about 20,000 metric tons of coffee, making the country the 39th largest exporter of coffee in the world, and making coffee the country’s 3rd most exported product. Furthermore, Rwanda saw a 53% increase in coffee revenue from $75.5 million in 2021-2022 to $116 million in 2022-2023 – making it a very successful year indeed. 

In 2018, Rwandan coffee started trading on the world’s largest e-commerce platform, Alibaba, after the Government of Rwanda entered into a partnership with the shopping giant to sell Rwandan products through the online market. So far, sales volumes of Rwandan coffee have grown by 700% on Tmall Global, Alibaba’s cross-border B2C platform. In 2024, Gorilla’s Coffee made its debut on Amazon in the United States.

The exceptional quality of our coffee has also gained widespread acclaim, with Rwandan coffee scooping international accolades including the “Best of the Best” and “Coffee Lover’s Choice” awards in a competition that attracted brands from nine countries, while also being among the top 10 winners of the International Barista Championship that took place in China, 2019.

The growth of Rwanda’s coffee industry is a testament to what can be achieved when the government invests in farmers and infrastructure, and fosters fruitful partnerships with private sector companies like RFCC. 

Furthermore, by keeping as much of the value of coffee in the country as possible, Rwanda Farmers Coffee Company is redefining what responsible coffee production and consumption looks like. You can support this effort, and Rwanda’s coffee farmers, by purchasing Gorilla’s Coffee.