Rwanda – Kanya Lot 19

Rwanda – Kanya

Rwanda is blessed with ideal coffee growing conditions that include high altitude, regular rainfall, volcanic soils with good organic structure and an abundance of the excellent Arabica varietal Bourbon. The vast majority of Rwandan coffee is produced by smallholders of which there are thought to be around half a million – with parcels of land often not much larger than just one hectare per family. Coffee is grown in most parts of the country, with particularly large concentrations along Lake Kivu and in the southern province. Rwandan smallholders organise themselves into cooperatives and share the services of centralised wet-mills – or washing stations as they are known locally. Flowering takes place between September and October and the harvest runs from March to July, with shipments starting in August through December.

Kanyamibwa Edmond, built Kanya Washing station in 2014 using a loan from RTC (Rwanda Trading Company – Speciality Coffee partner and supplier). A resident of the area, Kanyamibwa had always been interested in coffee, and used the station to learn and perfect the methods of processing cherries. Over the following years, Kanya grew to process high quality coffee and the capacity of the station was significantly increased. Kanyamibwa, used the profits from Kanya to build a second washing station, and in 2017 decided to sell Kanya to RTC so that he could continue to properly manage the operations of his second washing station. At the Kanya washing station strict processing protocols are followed, the coffee is first passed through floatation tanks to remove any foreign matter, under ripe cherries and floaters. After that the coffee is machined pulped with the help of a Penagos de-pulper, then the coffee is dry fermented in a purpose built storage area for around 24 to 36 hours and the mucilage removed before being placed to dry on raised beds for a period from 15 to 22 days.