The Government is considering ways to address the issue of lack of financing for the purchase of fertilisers needed to boost coffee production in the current financial year, Claude Bizimana, Chief Executive of the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) has said.

For the current fiscal year – 2021/22, the board needed Rwf2.8 billion to buy 5,000 tonnes of fertilisers in order to help increase coffee productivity, but such money was not provided under the national budget.

This [fertiliser usage], Bizimana indicated, would help the country achieve the expected produce of 27,000 tonnes of coffee for this fiscal year, and fetch some Rwf78 billion worth of export revenues.

Bizimana explained it was projected that lack of availability of fertilisers will likely reduce the expected coffee production by 13 per cent for next year, and 30 per cent for the following year if coffee trees will have not received required nutrients.

He indicated that farmers, especially smallholders would not afford fertilisers on their own.

"This is a major concern because it implies that we could not get the revenues [we were expecting from coffee exports],” he said.

It is to note that in 2019/2020, Rwanda exported 19,723 tonnes of green coffee that generated $60.4 million (about Rwf60 billion at the current exchange rate), according to figures from NAEB.

"[For coffee production], our priority is to get fertilisers,” he said.

In an effort to solve the problem, he said that his institution was in talks with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) to look for ways to secure the financing "because it is urgent.”

Another option, he said, is that they held discussions with coffee exporters to see how their contribution in the fund meant for coffee production fertilisers can be increased.

If they increase contributions, Bizimana said, 3,500 tonnes of fertilisers would be procured, which is about 46 per cent of the required 7,500 tonnes of fertilisers.

"We are in negotiations with MINECOFIN so that they help us get money to support the fund in order to secure the [needed] fertilisers,” he said.

Normally, he said, exporters make contributions in the fertiliser fund managed by the Coffee Exporters and Processors of Rwanda (CEPAR), and the Government provides a top-up depending on how much money is available in it.

But, in 2019, he said, the Government bought all the 7,500 tonnes of fertilisers that were needed for coffee production then – it spent Rwf5 billion on fully subsidising those fertilisers.

That time, he said, coffee market price was low, adding that the Government realised that the farmer would be adversely affected if it did not intervene to buy all the fertilisers.

Currently, he said, the coffee price is relatively high such that if they increase their contribution, it would not be a burden for them, rather help farmers get the needed fertilisers.

Every kilogramme of exported coffee, he said, Rwf108 is contributed towards the fertiliser fund.

Ideally, he said, the fund would be buying all the fertilisers alone. But, because of the price fluctuation at the [international] market, while the cost of production is high for the farmers, they would be more affected than the coffee exporters if they are required to pay for fertilisers – as the latter would pay less to farmers for their coffee produce as a result.

Meanwhile, farmers have been arguing that the cost of production is high compared to the small income they get from coffee.

"If we are told to buy fertilisers on our own, that can be a serious issue, a discouragement to farmers,” said Verediyana Uwamurera, a coffee farmer, and president of Dukunda Kawa Nyagisozi – a Cooperative of coffee growers in Nyagisozi Sector of Nyaruguru District.