Dutch museum starts sale of Rwandan specialty coffee

A Dutch museum yesterday opened a café where Rwandan Speciality Coffee will be sold. The opening was presided over by Stijn Schoonderwoerd, the director of the museum, and Jean Pierre Karabaranga, the Rwandan ambassador to the Netherlands. Amb. Karabaranga emphasised that Rwanda has favourable conditions for Arabica coffee growth. “In 15 years, Rwanda has grown to becoming an award-winning producer of coffee with increasing demand worldwide,’’ said Karabaranga. According to a statement from the Rwandan embassy in the Netherlands, the Museum of Ethnology in the Dutch town of Leiden opened Café Abel to showcase Rwanda as a remarkable coffee producer. Inside the Café, everything is all about coffee – the special flavors and how it tastes, as well as the stories of the people behind Rwandan coffee production. Visitors to Café Abel can enjoy a photo exhibition showing the people involved in the coffee production, from the person who works at the coffee plantation in Rwanda to the barista in the Netherlands who makes the coffee. Rwanda’s coffee is imported to the Netherlands by a Dutch company called ‘This Side Up’, an online platform, where coffee roasters in the Netherlands directly trade with coffee farmers in Rwanda. ‘This Side Up’ makes sure the coffee farmer gets a fair price and will advise them in what it takes to produce even better coffee. Lennart Clerkx, director of ‘This Side Up’, said that there is growing interest from Dutch specialty roasters. “Rwanda coffee is now sold by more than 30 roasters in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague and Leiden. The Dutch are a true coffee drinking people and now the taste of Rwanda coffee will be discovered.” editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Dutch museum starts sale of Rwandan specialty coffee