A bumper season would normally elicit smiles and optimism, but for coffee farmers in Huye District, it has turned into regrets as they are forced to sell their produce at give-away prices.

Huye, home to Maraba premium coffee, is arguably the country’s biggest coffee producer but the farmers say the price has plummeted from Rwf300 per kilogramme of cherries last year to Rwf170 currently.

The farmers say besides the coffee fetching little, the washing stations in the area are overwhelmed by the large quantities of produce that need processing.

"Most of the collection centres which used to buy our coffee from the farms have closed because the washing stations where they would take it for processing are overstretched,” said Janvier Mugambira, a coffee farmer from Isimbi Sector.

Besides limited processing capacity, heavy rain has made it hard for the dryers.

"Even when we use our own means to take the coffee to the washing stations, they turn us back; others have resorted to using traditional means like grindstones,” said Agnes Cyimpaye, a coffee farmer from Sovu Cell in Huye Sector.

This year, the minimum price of coffee cherries has been set at Rwf170 by National Agricultural and Exports Development Board (NAEB), but it said the price could go up depending on the quality of coffee.

Veneranda Mukakarega, the vice president of ‘Abahuzamugambi ba Kawa Maraba,’ a cooperative that operates in five sectors, said coffee produce is not benefiting farmers as it should as the price is not even commensurate to what they invest.

The cooperative, which has 1,416 farmers and operates four washing stations, said that something must be done to ensure that farmers’ concerns are addressed.

"There are even farmers who are selling coffee to some people at Rwf150 a kilogramme because they can’t afford to reach the washing station and those people resell it at Rwf170,” she said.

Jean Claude Sebagabo, the manager of Cyarumbo Coffee Washing Station in Maraba Sector, said the issue of rain has affected the coffee treatment chain and it pushed them to cut down the amount they receive.

"Some of the coffee we get from farmers is kept in bags because we cannot process it until it goes bad yet we have to pay the farmers the moment they bring their coffee,” he said.

On average, Sebagabo said, his station previously received 20 tonnes per day but now they have cut it to seven.

"Coffee is a perishable crop; after two days without getting required treatment, it simply goes bad yet under the current conditions, the coffee can take over three weeks on the drying racks because of rain,” Sebagabo said.

Huye vice mayor for finance and economic development Cyprien Mutwarasibo said they have embarked on an awareness campaign to urge investors to invest in the drying racks.

He attributed the bumper harvest to the campaign dubbed, ‘Maraba Coffee Intensification’, which saw the acreage on which coffee is grown increase to 1560 hectares.

He said the district is mulling other ways coffee could be processed expeditiously to mitigate losses incurred by the farmers.

There are about 11 coffee washing stations in Huye District.

NAEB chief executive George William Kayonga advised the farmers to work on a plan to harvest at intervals."We know it is a problem but we are also talking with farmers, agronomists and local authorities to seek a lasting solution,” Amb. Kayonga said.

Figures from NAEB show that last year, Rwanda’s green coffee production was at 16, 380 metric tonnes which raked in over $59.6 million and the country targets to have 26,000 metric tonnes of green coffee expected to provide $76 million in revenues this year.

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