• Rwanda hosts first farmers’ support centre in Africa 

KIGALI – US coffee retail giant Starbucks plans to start selling high grade Rwanda coffee that is fair-trade certified in its 800 outlets in the UK, effective February next year. 

Starbucks’ Chairman Howard Schultz said the move to buy fair-trade certified coffee aimed at improving the lives of farmers through better returns from their crop and also encouraging better coffee-growing practices. 

"We are making a large purchase for Rwandan fair-trade coffee that will be available throughout our 800 stores in the UK, beginning of February,” Starbucks’ chairman told The New Times.

This will be the first time Rwandan fair-trade coffee is sold in the UK. Starbucks has been selling much of Rwandan coffee mainly within its US outlets. 

Shultz also announced that Starbucks would set up, in Rwanda, the first farmers’ support centre for Africa.

"We want to provide our knowledge and our insight to help educate and advise local farmers on best practices,” Shultz said.

The agronomy office will be modelled on a farmer support centre in Costa Rica which improved coffee yields by almost 20 percent in the South American nation.

On top of buying and selling Rwandan coffee, the centre will assist farmers in adopting effective farm practices to maximise yields. 

"We wouldn’t be opening an office in Rwanda if we didn’t believe in a long term future of the opportunity for Starbucks as a company to build the business much bigger than the one we have today,” he said.

The move was music to the ears of coffee authorities in the country.

Ocir Café Director General Alex Kanyankore hailed the news of a new support centre saying it would greatly improve quality and output of the crop, which is one of the country’s’s top foreign exchange earner.

"It is very important that Starbucks will be here as a permanent coffee purchaser and in supporting farmers in terms of training and capacity building,” he said.

Starbucks buys coffee from about 30 countries and has stores in 51 countries that host about 70,000 retail stores.

For more details on Starbucks and Rwanda see our interview with Howard Shultz on Pages 16 & 17.

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