RWANDA - GITEGA 285 | Washed

Just 12km from neighbouring Bwenda in the Cyanika sector and slightly higher up, adjacent to a disused quartz quarry, sits Gitega Hills. Slightly larger than Bwenda, Gitega covers an area of around 6 hectares and is nearby the small town of Miko. Gitega is the name of the surrounding land cell. A cell being a smaller area within a larger sector, within a larger region or province. Established by RTC in 2016, the station has been managed since then by Alex. He told me that everyone who works at Gitega is from the local community and he feels that the station plays a valuable and positive role in the area for the work it provides. He was also excited to tell me that the good rainfall the area had experienced during the harvest pointed to great quality for the 2022 season’s yields. Gitega employs 150 people including 11 permanently, with the rest being seasonal workers. 90% are women. 1040 farmers contribute cherry to Gitega’s annual production and in 2016 they processed 400 tons of cherry. At the time of our visit they had aready hit 500 tons with the expectation to hit 700 before they stopped processing for the season. The farms all lie between 0.5km and 7km away and are serviced by 33 different cherry collection points. On average the contributing farms grow just 400 trees (1 hectare). Additionally, the station provides farmers with organic EM2 compost which consists of recycled cherry pulp from the station with some animal manure. All 1040 farmers using Gitega have completed or are current participants in RTC'S Agribusiness Training Program.

To date the program supports 52,000 smallholder farmers in Rwanda. That’s 52,000 families impacted by the purchase and sale of these coffees. 90% of all the farmers contributing cherry across the 10 locations we visited – Bwenda, Gitega Hills, Horizon, Kirambo, Karambi, Mutovu, Gatare, Gitega, Gitwe and Gishyita – were either graduates of, or current participants in RTC’s training program, which recruits farmers for an initial 2 year period. All of these stations are focussed on producing specialty coffee and all have seen increases in yield quality, and therefore increases in household income for their cohort of farmers. RTC estimates that 80% of first parchment produced by these stations cup above 84 points, with a growing amount going well above 86+.