Muyongwe washing station won this year’s golden cup coffee cupping competition. To promote quality coffee production for both the local and international markets, Rwanda coffee development authority is promoting national coffee cupping competitions. The competition was organised by OCIR CAFÉ and USAID/SPREAD project. The president of the association, Antane Urimubenshi attributed his success to the rural farmers who supply them with quality coffee. He promised to produce more quality coffee. ‘‘This is not enough to me. We are not going to relax. We are determined to produce quality coffees which are 3 times better than this in next year’s competition.” Urimubenshi said. The other ten best washing stations were also given awards. These include Nyamashoke station, Remera Mich, KavaKafu, Nile, Mic Ngoma, Ikawa kamunye, kanzu, Coa kaka and Ngoma washing machine. Timothy Schilling director USAID/SPREAD said that six years Rwanda was un known coffee exporter but now is the specialised high quality coffee exporter in whole world. “I am sure Rwanda will be the best country in the whole world to export high quality coffee in the next five years,” he added. He said that Rwanda will be competing with countries like Costa Rica, Colombia and Jamaica. The 2007 national coffee cupping competition is called 2007 Golden cup cupping competition. The competition will promote trade in coffee based on quality. According to Ephrem Niyonsaba, the Director of Rwanda coffee Board, the competition was open to all coffee growers and washing stations in the country. The golden cup competition is the first ever of its kind in Rwanda and Africa at large. This has been planned as the first step, a trial run for conducting the highly revered cup of excellence competition and in Rwanda in 2008. The competition was organised at the national quality training centre at Maraba, southern province. Ends
