Musasa Cooperative (also known as the Dukundekawa Cooperative) was legally incorporated in 2002 and is located in Ruli sector, Rushashi district. The cooperative now has 2 pulping stations to process the deliveries of red cherries. Annual production is around 100-120 tons of green coffee. The cooperative gives these 2000 or so tiny producers the chance to combine their harvests and so sell their coffee directly to the international market. This has drastically increased the quality of life for Musasa’s members, often more than doubling their income. Moreover, by operating in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner, the cooperative has ensured that future generations of Rwandans will be able to obtain a decent quality of life through the coffee industry.
Musasa is part of a network of cooperatives assisted by the US-sponsored PEARL program, which does invaluable work helping Rwanda’s small-scale coffee farmers to rebuild their production in the wake of the 1994 genocide and the 1990s world coffee crash.
PEARL's Coffee Program: Restoring the Potential of the Rwandan Coffee Industry
In the years before the devastating ethnic conflict in Rwanda, coffee was Rwanda's most lucrative export. In 1990, the country exported 45,000 tons of coffee helping to support millions of Rwanda's small scale farmers. The events of the genocide in 1994 had a devastating effect on Rwanda's coffee industry and society at large. Nearly 1 million people were slaughtered in 100 days and some 2 million fled to neighboring countries. When they returned, they faced a destroyed economy and decimation of the work force, as many survivors were women and children. Many coffee plantations were deserted and much of the specialized knowledge needed to export coffee profitably was erased. Simultanesouly, the world coffee prices plummeted on the global market, due to increased worldwide production and consolidation of purchasing by multinational corportations. As a result, coffee production in Rwanda halved as farmers pulled up coffee trees to plant other food crops. Since this disastrous chain of events, Rwanda has stabilized and started to re-establish the necessary infrastructure to produce and process specialty grade coffee. One initiative in particular – PEARL – has helped to rebuild Rwanda's agricultural institutions, production capability, and human capital so that the country's small farmers can sell their coffee directly to buyers in the specialty market and receive higher prices for their product. PEARL pursues this goal primarily by creating and supporting coffee cooperatives. Cooperatives allow Rwanda's small growers combine their harvests into container-sized shipments, instead of tiny parcels produced by individual farms (many of which have less than 200 trees on their farms). This in turn enables them to sell coffee directly to foreign markets instead of to domestic markets or via exporters. More importantly, if a cooperative can consistently produce container-sized quantities of high-quality coffee, its members can sell their beans in the specialty coffee market and receive appropriately high prices for their product. PEARL has succeeded in organizing 12 cooperatives, and has helped three cooperatives, including the Musasa Cooperative, build coffee washing stations. These coffees are now exported to Specialty Coffee buyers around the world. As a result farmers' income has more than doubled, allowing them to purchase essential supplies that were previously unattainable. To be successful in the specialty coffee industry the PEARL project has worked with grower cooperatives to improve the coffee quality at all stages of the production, processing and marketing process. Key initiatives include: • Improving on-farm production and harvesting practices • Educating growers in the cooperative about what buyers are looking for, how to identify which members produce high quality beans; and finally how to combine lots into a consistent, high-quality exportable product. • Building and managing washing stations to wash, select, depulp and dry coffee to stringent specialty coffee industry specifications • Building coffee cupping labs to taste and evaluate coffee quality to determine the potential value of individual lots • Developing market access by engaging U.S. and European specialty coffee roasters and distributors PEARL also works to rebuild Rwanda's agricultural research capabilities. PEARL has partnered with Texas A&M and Michigan State to educate dozens of Rwandans in Agricultural Science in the United States. Similarly, PEARL works to extend the techniques developed at Rwanda's agricultural research institutions to production in the field. By helping Rwandans form successful and profitable cooperatives, and rebuilding Rwanda's research capacity, PEARL's coffee program will continue to increase the quality and quantity of coffee being exported from Rwanda for years to come. In so doing, PEARL will make a lasting impact on thousands of Rwandan small farmers.