Key origin info:

Producer: small-holder growers from the Nyamasheke district
Processed at: Rugali washing station

Region: Nyamasheke
Altitude: 1600-1650 masl

Variety: Red Bourbon
Process: Natural, sorted & dried on raised beds

Exporter: Muraho Traing Co | Importer: Raw Material

Cup profile: Jammy & sticky sweet, spiced plums & butterscotch

About Rugali & Muraho Trading Co:

Coffee for this lot was grown by small-holder farmers delivering their cherry to Rugali washing station in the Nyamasheke district on the shores of Lake Kivu. Rugali, where the coffee is processed, is owned and managed by Muraho Trading Company. Run by two brothers with strong roots in the community. Muraho is a young innovative coffee company with a mission to showcase exceptional quality of Rwandan coffee whilst having a positive impact in the local communities.

Rugali is one of six washing stations owned and run by Muraho. Established in 2016, Rugali was the second station that Muraho built. Thanks to its central location in the area and the tireless effort of the Rugali affiliated families, over the last few years it has quickly grown to be the biggest and busiest of Muraho’s stations and it is now fondly referred to as the “Big Daddy” and the beating heart of the company and indeed also the local community.

With the conscious effort to build on the success and positive impact of the station in the local community, Muraho have made the decision to build their dry mill (usually located in larger cities for convenience) at Rugali providing further employment opportunitiess in the rural area. Now all of the coffee produced at the station based around Lake Kivu are transported here for dry-milling and sorting in preparation for export. Furthermore, once the dry-milling needs of Muraho’s stations are met, the dry-milling services are offered to other in the region.

Next to their exquisite traditional washed lots, Rugali, along with its little sister Kilimbi, were some of the first stations in Rwanda to legally produce and export natural and honey processed coffee and they continue to excel in the production of these.

This is our third year of purchasing coffees from Muraho through our importing partner Raw Material and we are very excited to add this lot form Rugali to the Feature Espresso lineup!

About Raw Material - our importing partner:

Raw Material are a community interest company green coffee importer operating in the UK, EU and Australia. The work of Raw Material is centred around the vision of “speciality coffee as a solution”. A solution to sustainably improve the livelihoods of the many small-holder producers who have been historically marginalised and not receiving adequate value for their produce and contribution in the supply stream.

As RM explain:

Often the price farmers receive is lower than their cost of production. This situation leads to cycles of debt and disadvantage that compounds over generations.

The choices of the specialty coffee industry have an outsized ability to influence positive outcomes for producers and the wider environment. The value of the specialty coffee market continues to accelerate with a projected compound annual growth rate of 11-12% across the next 5 years. Total market value was estimated to be 35 billion USD in 2018 and is expected to grow to over 80 billion USD by 2025.

This is an exciting opportunity for development through trade. This is one of the few crises in the world for which the solution is direct and self-sustaining: with the appropriate investments and continued effort, the growing demand for high-quality coffee can be fulfilled by historically marginalised groups to great long-term effect.

To change the world, we need a powerful strategy. This requires that we make tough choices not just about what we will do but also what we will not do. We don’t search for the best coffee. We search for the right communities and work with them to build systems to produce high-quality coffee and connect to a stable marketplace. When the solution is well designed and community-led, results can be achieved very quickly.

Raw Material currently focus on working with producers in Colombia, Mexico, Rwanda & Timor Leste and they are our supply partner for Mexico and now also Rwanda.

You can find out more about their vision, impact and methods here.