Rwandans picking up on the coffee culture

Although they grow the coffee, the farmers on the highlands of Rwanda barely drink the beverage.

Like most Rwandans, they prefer the cheaper tea found in most shops. That’s because 63 percent of Rwandans, the farmers included, earn less than 2 dollars a day, and a brewed coffee sells at around 2 dollars.

“I farm the coffee for business, and the money I make I use it in other projects. We are not interested in consuming coffee since a brewed cup is very expensive. The money is our target,” said Vincent Habumugisha, coffee farmer.

The city dwellers in the capital Kigali are embracing this luxury more. With the capital seeing an increase in the number of coffee speciality shops from one to about ten.

“Rwanda as a country, we don’t have that much of a coffee culture. So obviously we do have some expats (expatriates, people living and working outside their native country) who know coffee, who know what good quality coffee is and come here, you know, searching for that good quality. But we also get Rwandans who are discovering about coffee, who want to move away from soluble coffee, who want to discover,“Micheline Habineza, Manager of Question Coffee Centre.

According to Rwanda Export Website there are some 400,000 small holder farm families currently producing coffee, with exports growing year-on-year. As the production grows, the country hopes to increase its consumption from just three percent of the total production.