RWANDA – The National Agriculture Export Board (NAEB) of Rwanda has officially launched the operations of its newly acquired modern coffee sorting and grading equipment worth US$1.15 million.

Through the TradeMark Africa (TMA), USAID funded the procurement, delivery, installation, and operationalization of the coffee sorting and grading machines worth US$1.159 million.

While the Kingdom of the Netherlands provided funding for coffee sorting tables worth US$ 217,000 under the regional TMA Safe Trade Emergency Facility.

According to the NAEB Chief Financial Officer, Andre Ndikumana, “The equipment will considerably expedite operations. It is expected to reduce the costs incurred in manual sorting, improve the quality of the coffee, and enable Rwanda to better compete in international markets efficiently.

“This increased capacity will also greatly benefit the 32 coffee producer co-operatives that we serve.”

In addition, farmers are expected to collect higher premium on their coffee as quality increases. One of the ways to achieve this is to remove barriers to trade in Eastern and Southern Africa and improve the competitiveness in the private sector, as expressed by TMA Country Director, Patience Mutesi.

“One of the barriers is that it used to take about twelve days to fill a 40-foot container with coffee. With this machine, sorting will take less than a day,” she said.

The new coffee grading and sorting equipment falls under TMA’s program to support Rwanda in meeting international Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Standards (SPS) of its agricultural produce to be able to access high-yielding international markets.

With faster operations and improved quality, Rwandan coffee is also expected to make a stronger mark on the European market.

“It’s definitely a game changer,” Kevin Ngei, representative from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands confirmed.

“It will ensure that more coffee exports are realized from Rwanda, which will benefit not only the Dutch exporters, but also the wider European Union markets,” he commented.

Currently 400,000 small-holder farmers are engaged in coffee farming, producing an upward of 21,000 Metric Tonnes of the beverage crop.

In 2020/2021 fiscal year, coffee exports earned the country US$ 61.5 million despite depressed global demand due to the Covid19.

Coffee plays a major role in Rwandan economy and significantly contributes to the foreign exchange earnings and to the monetization of the rural economy.

The commodity accounts for almost 35 % of the country’s total export revenue and provides livelihoods to 400,000 smallholder farmers.

Under the government’s Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA IV), it aims to increase the annual production to 32,500 MT fetching US$95 million in revenues by 2024.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.