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Rwandan Coffee Success
U.S. coffee giant Starbucks Corp plans to begin selling Rwandan specialty coffee in 5,000 outlets across the United States from next month.
The tiny central African country's coffee, grown at high altitude on rich volcanic soils, is attracting huge interest from buyers in the specialty market in Europe and United States.
"Rwanda is now on the map as an exciting new source of specialty coffee," Alfred Nuno, a green coffee trader with Starbucks said.
Starbucks, a leading U.S. retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world, will sell Rwandan coffee under its Black Apron Exclusive label, a category reserved for superior quality products.
"Every stage of the coffee production is important, from the picking to the final preparation. Rwanda has succeeded at every stage resulting in excellent coffee," Nuno said after visiting Rwandan coffee farmers.
Five years ago, Rwanda produced no specialty coffee but its output of fully washed coffee reached 1,100 tonnes in 2005.
Rwanda has only 46 coffee washing stations, from which it expects to produce 8,000 tonnes of washed coffee in the current crop year.
The country, which is still recovering from a 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed, also aims to increase the area in which coffee is grown hoping to receive high revenues from specialty coffee exports to cut its trade deficit and high poverty levels.
About 80 million bushes are grown by 500,000 families on 33,000 hectares.
Reuters
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