Coffee farmers and exporters in the country have been awarded over Rwf200 million after their berries won in the last year’s coffee Cup of Excellence (CoE) competition hosted in Kigali.

Gahakwa Rudakemwa Pierre Claver Head of Quality Assurance Department said that Rwf76.48 million was given to farmers in Southern Province district of Nyamagabe through twelve cooperatives. Rudakemwa said that about Rwf35.27 million was awarded to eight cooperatives in Western Province and on 17th of this month Rwf36.421 million will be awarded to 4 cooperatives in the Northern Province.

The total envelop for farmers is Rwf148.116 while another Rwf65.379 was allocated for coffee washing stations.

Awards were presented to coffee cooperatives and coffee washing stations with the aim of boost the coffee quality and production.

During a recent Internet auction to the highest Rwandan coffee reaped $39.68 per Kilogram and the lowest fetched $13.23 per Kilogram.

The money was fetched from the 24 coffees which were the eventual winners and awarded the cup of excellence mark.

The coffees were then sold to the highest bidder during the same Internet auction.

According to Gahakwa, on average, a farmer would get 1.2 million and most of the farmers pledged to improve their lives, pay school fees for their children and a big part will go to coffee plantations.

"This is a motivation package to maintain the quality and quantity of coffee but also improve on their standards of living,” Gahakwa said.

He said that a small amount from the auction went to the organising institution while a big share is to be shared among farmers.

Cup of excellence hosted by Rwandan government was the eighth worldwide and the first ever CoE in Africa. It is the most esteemed award given out as recognition for the highest quality of coffees in the world.

The winning coffees are chosen by a jury of national and international judges.

Each coffee is cupped on at least five separate occasions during the competition process.

The pre-selection phase had 125 coffees, 50 remained for the national jury level and 24 samples qualified for the Cup of Excellence level.

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