‘Cup of Excellence’ competition kicks off in Maraba

SOUTHERN PROVINCE HUYE — The ‘Coffee Cup of Excellence’, the first of its kind in Africa is underway at the Maraba specialty Coffee laboratory with an international Jury tasting the various coffee samples. After the pre-selection and tasting exercise by the National jury, the Cup of Excellence has entered its final phase and ends on Thursday this week. Results of the Competition will be made public on Friday at a ceremony to be held in the capital, Kigali. The international jury is made up of 26 coffee testing experts from America, Asia and Europe. Countries like Japan and Taiwan have a big representation at the Cup of Excellence competition. According to the Director General of the Rwanda Coffee Authority (Ocir-Café), Alex Kanyankore, the Cup of Excellence competition, “is a high level promotion exercise of the Coffee sector in general.” “We envisage increased prices of Rwandan Coffee and consequently increased income for our farmers as a result of the competition,” said Kanyankore. He also said that, Rwanda produces between 15,000-30,000 tonnes of Coffee every year but the quantity produced has been mainly characterized by fluctuations over the years. “Fluctuations have been caused mainly by poor agriculture practices, lack of inputs like fertilizers, poor soil maintenance and prevalence of pests and diseases,” said the Ocir-Cafe boss. “We are working on improving agronomical practices, educating and sensitising farmers, pest and diseases control. We are laying emphasis on an integrated pest management system where we combine chemical and biological methods to control pests and diseases,” he added. The Coffee authority is also working on increasing the acreage of Coffee farms to boost production. In Huye district, 200hectares of land have been set aside for coffee planting in the next Coffee planting season. The Cup of Excellence competition has existed for many years in countries like Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Brazil, Honduras and Costa Rica. Leading coffee producing countries that have previously hosted the event include; Brazil, Colombia, Costa-Rica and the Honduras. Ends