We check out what&#8217;s brewing in one of Kigali&#8217;s hottest coffee spots. Also, about 80% of their farm workforce is women. 



As you step into Kivu Noir, in downtown Kigali, you’re instantly enveloped by the rich aroma of freshly- ground coffee that the lively baristas rustle up behind the counter.



One of Rwanda’s biggest success stories is agriculture. According to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the sector employs about 64.5% of the total population, contributing around 25% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).


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<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-64138" style="width:610px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(Photo by Chanel Retief)</figcaption></figure></div>


And a major driving force in this sector is coffee.



“We don’t even serve food inside. If customers order food, they have to be seated outside because we do not want it to interfere with the smell of the coffee,” beams one of the baristas at Kivu Noir.



The coffee aroma lingers, even on the terrace of the restaurant, where a business meeting is in progress. At the other end of the balcony, people sit in rows hunched over their laptops, working, and sipping unique blends of African espresso and latte.



The café is built on the premise of a farm-to-table experience as all the coffee served is made from beans that come directly from a farmer near one of the African Great Lakes (around the Great Rift Valley in East and Central Africa). “Our coffee is grown and harvested from the volcanic shores of Lake Kivu at a small village called Nkora (the estate). The ripe cherries are wet-washed at Nkora, the oldest and largest washing station in Rwanda,” Kivu Noir Coffee’s Co-Founder, Kevin Mbundu, tells FORBES AFRICA.


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<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-by-Muhire-Adolphe-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-64139" style="width:572px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-by-Muhire-Adolphe-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-by-Muhire-Adolphe-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-by-Muhire-Adolphe-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-by-Muhire-Adolphe-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-by-Muhire-Adolphe-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(Photo by Muhire Adolphe)</figcaption></figure></div>


“Our coffee benefits from an ideal growing environment, with lush green landscapes, abundant rainfall, and volcanic soils — conditions that are exceptionally suited to Arabica coffee production.”



This has allowed for a unique combination which, Mbundu says, enhances the coffee’s flavor profile, producing “a rich, full-bodied taste”.



But producing such coffee comes with its own challenges.



“[It’s] having to ensure that farmers consistently apply best practices for high-quality yields and manage the impact of prolonged dry seasons, which can reduce crop productivity,” Mbundu adds.



So how does Kivu Noir maintain quality control from farm to cup, given the diverse climates and terrains of African coffee regions?


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<figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-64140" style="width:393px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Kivu-Nior-Photo-byChanel-Retief-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(Photo by Chanel Retief)</figcaption></figure></div>


According to him, with Rwanda’s four-month Arabica coffee harvest cycle, they have to closely monitor and adjust production each year to ensure a fresh and reliable coffee supply across all their locations.



Visit Rwanda reports that about 95% of beans in the country are the high-quality Arabica varietal Bourbon, with a silky creamy body and hints of lemon and orange blossom, and a caramel aftertaste.



It adds that 450,000 small growers produce coffee across Rwanda, but that visits by tourists are primarily around Gisenyi, near the shores of Lake Kivu.



“Some farmers’ cooperatives and washing stations offer tours explaining the coffee process through the year,” Visit Rwanda reports. Coffee is an important source of income for small farmers in Rwanda. Also, most farms are at high altitudes of 1,700m to 2,000m. The coffee industry is also a great supporter of women’s empowerment. Mbundu says that about 80% of their farm workforce is women.



“This is a unique approach in an industry where much of coffee production has been industrialized, as seen in countries like Brazil and Indonesia,” he adds. The RDB states that the annual quantity of coffee produced in Rwanda ranges from 20,000 metric tons to 22,000 metric tons, further highlighting an increase in fully-washed and ordinary coffee export volumes and revenues every year. The major markets for Rwandan coffee, according to the RDB, are the United States, Europe (Switzerland, United Kingdom, Belgium, among others) and Asia (Singapore). It’s an industry that’s full of beans.

Kevin 2

Thanks A Latte: Sampling Rwanda’s Coffee Hub

By: Fernando Morales-de la Cruz, Founder of Café For Change 



Opinions expressed by Forbes Africa contributors are their own.



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The International Coffee
Council of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) will meet in Nairobi,
Kenya, from March 25 to 29, at a moment of serious crisis in all coffee-producing
regions due to the exploitative prices paid by coffee-importing nations. 



Unfortunately, at the ICO, the
coffee importing members do not include the United States and Canada and,
usually, the European Union, importer of 41% of all coffee in the world, is
represented at ICO meetings by European Commission officials with no influence
on trade issues. 



Switzerland, a country that is
home to 70% of all coffee trading and even chairs the ICO, is also represented
at the ICO by public officials with little or no authority on major trade
issues. The ICO and its meeting in Nairobi are therefore of little or no use for
solving the coffee crisis.



 The increasingly profitable global coffee industry is controlled by a smaller number of more powerful multinationals. A concentration of these companies, in Switzerland, that are trading green coffee, &nbsp;have put 25 million coffee producers and more than 125 million people living in coffee communities in a deep economic and humanitarian crisis, and in a situation of defenselessness.



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 The drastic fall in the price of coffee, which is not a new issue, has also had a devastating impact on the economies of the coffee-growing countries. Not only coffee growers and workers depend on coffee production. Coffee growing, like many other rural activities, has a huge economic impact on national economies and, even, in the capitals of those nations.



 Coffee multinationals now pay less than one dollar per pound of coffee, a price that is 74% less than that agreed in the International Coffee Agreement of 1983. Recently, the price of coffee fell to $0.93 per lb. This amounts to only $0.36 at 1983 prices, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of the United States DOL. The coffee price in 1983, agreed by the importing countries (Europe, Switzerland, United States, Canada, Japan, etc.), was $1.20 to $1.40 per lb because it was estimated that this amount could, reasonably, cover production costs in the coffee countries.



 The “Ideal Price” of Coffee The solution to the crisis in the price of coffee has been further complicated by the position taken by the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Columbia, FNC, representing the third largest coffee producer in the world, to try to set and promote internationally an “ideal price” of only $1.40 to $1.50 per lb, even below the false and unjust “fair price” of $1.40 + $0.20 premium, defended by “fairtrade”. 



The “ideal price” proposed by
the FNC, $1.50 per lb, is less than 42% of the price of the 1983 International
Coffee Agreement. That price is “ideal” for multinationals but it is not ideal for
coffee-growers or rural workers in any country in the coffee belt.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="450" height="433" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/price.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39717" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/price.png 450w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/price-300x289.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" /></figure>



It is absolutely unfair that farmers
should receive 58% less in 2019 than what they were paid by multinationals in
1983, more than 35 years ago. The production costs of farmers have increased
substantially since 1983 but, on the other hand, they have also increased by
tens of billions of dollars per year, in coffee-importing countries, the
profits, the added value and the taxes generated for the coffee crop to be sold
to the final consumer. 
 
The multinationals estimate internally the FOB value of coffee at between $4
and $5.50 per lb., an estimate that makes a lot of sense when calculating that
the price of $1.40 of the ICA of 1983, adjusted for inflation and using the CPI
of the US Department of Labor, would today be $3.61 lb. After adding taxes in
origin, the true cost of land, social security, pensions and education to the price
of coffee of 1983, the current price should be between $4 and $5.50 per pound,
as the multinationals estimate internally.



 Obviously, the multinationals work with development agencies on false sustainability initiatives, and NGOs that claim to fight against poverty, even though they perpetuate it, “studying” and promoting production costs that only suit multinationals and condemn farmers and workers, and their children, to extreme poverty. 



“Production costs” that also
guarantee underdevelopment in rural communities so that coffee continues to be
available, together with many other agricultural products, at a very low price
for the developed nations.



 One of the greatest challenges for coffee-growers is that most of them are poor and have no way of defending themselves against greed and the influence of multinationals in their own cooperatives and organizations, nor in their national governments and institutions. 



 Farmers operate locally, regionally and, in very few cases, at the national level, while on the other hand, multinationals, by their nature, operate and have economic, political and communication influence at a global &nbsp;level. 



It is much easier for a
multinational to influence the national agricultural policy of any country, or
all of them simultaneously, than for the majority of coffee farmers together.
It is obvious that neither national coffee organizations nor governments have
known how to, or have wanted to defend producers for decades and this is why we
have reached the unacceptable reality that multinationals now buy coffee 74%
cheaper than 36 years ago and farmers receive less than two cents for every cup
of coffee served in developed nations. 



This cannot go on like this.
It is essential to create and implement a transparent shared value system that
compensates producers and workers, and also rural communities, with at least $0.10
per cup. 



 The true ideal price of coffee, cocoa, tea or any other product is one that allows all farmers and workers, and all their children, to aspire to be middle class, because they are the basis of an industry that generates tens of billions of US dollars in profits annually.



 To all the friends of the National Federation of Coffee Growers, to the 25 million producers from all over the world, to all the organizations of coffee-growers and to the presidents and officials of the governments of coffee-producing countries, I invite you all to fight together for a truly ideal price that allows everyone from the coffee belt, and all their children and dependents, to live with dignity by growing coffee.



 Neocolonialism and the exploitation of farmers, workers and millions of defenseless children and the fraudulent “fairtrade” and false certifications cannot be part of the “coffee landscape” of each chocolate bar or any other industry that presumes to operate within of the law, respecting human rights and the rights of children.

A Fight For The Truly Ideal Price Of Coffee

Despite its problems, East Africa’s third-largest economy has enjoyed a measure of political stability. In 1986, pragmatic former guerrilla leader, Yoweri Museveni, overthrew President Milton Obote and his National Resistance Movement (NRM); he has dominated the political landscape ever since and is expected to do so for the foreseeable future.
This vestige of political stability, coupled with western-backed economic reforms, culminated in robust economic growth for the east African nation. Between 2006 and 2010, growth averaged an impressive 7.2%. Growth has been supported predominantly by coffee exports, household consumption and infrastructure development. The commencement of oil production, following the discovery of oil in 2006, will be a further boost for growth in years to come.
However over the past financial year growth has taken a knock and was the lowest it has been for several years. Official statistics show growth to have slumped to 3.2% in FY2011/12, down from 6.7% the previous financial year. Growth was weighed down by rampant inflation and weak external demand, primarily emanating from concerns surrounding the Eurozone debt crisis.
<div id="attachment_994" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-994" class="size-large wp-image-994" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iStock_000001291877Medium-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="711" />The equator, exactly at zero degrees north or south, The line is also painted on the road.</div>
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects growth to improve to 6% in 2012 and rise to 7% in 2013. Growth is likely to benefit from less stringent monetary policy on the back of subdued inflation. This is likely to improve credit extension to the private sector that had been adversely affected through tight monetary policy pursued since the middle of last year.
Inflation last year spiralled out of control prompting the Bank of Uganda to raise the central bank rate from 13% in July to 23% in November. Inflation decreased to 18% in June, from 18.6% a month earlier. Declining inflation allowed the central bank some scope to ease the policy rate. The central bank rate was lowered to 19% in July, down from 20% in June. Despite falling inflation, the Bank of Uganda is likely to be cautious in its monetary policy stance in months ahead. Rightly so as core inflation still remains high at 19.5% as of June.
Fiscal policy will complement monetary policy and remain accommodative in line with the country’s infrastructural and developmental ambitions.
Macroeconomic policy will be further anchored through the IMF’s Policy Support Instrument (PSI) program currently in place. In June the IMF gave the program a thumbs up which will soothe investor concerns.
There are several risks to growth in coming years. Uncertain global growth given the lack of a comprehensive and permanent solution to the European sovereign debt crisis should keep external demand low and continue to curtail exports. About 22% of Ugandan exports are destined for Europe.
Slowed global growth should keep energy prices low. Conversely, inflation will soar in the event that oil prices rise significantly. Food inflation in particular will also be dependent on rainfall conditions. Poor rains drove food inflation higher last year and it remained sticky at 12.7%, in June.
The possibility of war between Sudan and South Sudan will also have a considerable bearing on Uganda’s growth. The two neighbors engaged in border conflicts earlier in the year and have threatened each other with full-blown war. In the unfortunate event of war, Uganda has pledged to support South Sudan. A war between the two neighbors would threaten lucrative trade between Uganda and South Sudan.
Uganda has been rocked by mass protest following the general elections last year, which threatened the county’s stability. Continued protest will disrupt production. The protests have been led by opposition leaders and aim to turn the government’s attention to rising living costs, unemployment and rising corruption levels. Worryingly though, the protests have turned violent and police heavy-handedness to quell the protests has been reported.
Investors will be watching the economy closely in months to come. Top on their radar will be how quickly President Museveni addresses protests concerns. Any escalation of the protest would be detrimental to the economy. Investors will also have an eye on the commencement of oil production slated for 2013.

Tag: coffee exports

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Thanks A Latte: Sampling Rwanda’s Coffee Hub

A Fight For The Truly Ideal Price Of Coffee

Uganda — Buffeted But Breathing