COVID19 Images from Kopakama Cooperative

Strict movement restrictions were implemented starting March 23rd in Rwanda.

April 6 - general assembly for the cooperative had
 to be only the essential few officers, sitting 2 m apart.⁠

Here is what Gervais KAYITARE, Executive Director of Kopakama Cooperative had to say when the lockdown started on March 23:⁠

"The Government took further preventive measures against Coronavirus today. No movements are allowed between Kigali and rural areas nor between districts. For agricultural activities,  we are still allowed to collect cherries. I'm preparing the guidelines for farmers, collectors, reception, etc in order to meet the preventive measures."⁠

⁠Regarding farmers, he shared, 

Modeling masks -
head agronomist, Justin, and
Ejo Heza farmer, Marie Grace

"like others in the World Wide, members of Kopakama are frightened of the pandemic. Because of restrictions, as rural people who live by daily routines, I can't say they feel safe because they're not free to move for satisfying their needs. Despite that they remain calm since they don't have any choice and nothing to do except respect of preventive measures proposed by the Government."⁠

Seems like we will all be happy for Coronavirus to be under control so we can visit again!⁠

See below for the March 23rd announcement from the Minister of Agriculture in Kinyarwanda.

What to Pay for Coffee - Not So Complicated

May 6, 2019

Ejo Heza women's group in Rwanda - sorting cherry

Guest blogger Kathy Tian, MBA/MS 2020, Erb Institute at the University of Michigan and Ruth Ann Church, President, Artisan Coffee Imports

Let's say you're a coffee roaster. Is it complicated to know what to pay for your green coffee? Not so much. Drawing content from two panels at SCA Expo in Boston we synthesize why. Both of these panels rigorously researched costs in Colombia and Rwanda: two different countries and two different continents. In one panel, "East Africa Quality Innovation," Ruth Ann Church shared  the connectedness of marketing, price and quality in Rwanda. Guest blogger, Kathy Tian, spoke on a separate panel: "Implications of Specialty Coffee Farming Costs in Colombia." 

Recommendations to roasters boil down to three steps:

1. Ask your importer if their contract with the producer is a fixed price contract or based on the C-price? Hopefully the importer's answer is that your less-than-container-load of bags of microlot coffee were bought on a fixed price contract. For microlot purchases up to about 300 bags, (sometimes more), this usually possible. NYBOT C-price based pricing is necessary when the coffee volume is large enough to need hedging in futures markets.

2. Ask your importer what is the farmer paid? Hopefully the importer's answer is "we can tell you that no problem." And then they give you a $ per unit answer. If they give you a lot of excuses about how difficult it is to answer, try reassuring them that you can handle doing some conversions if they can't. But shouldn't an importer be able to do the conversions (from local currency to US$; from KG to pounds; from cherry to green)? For example, Artisan Coffee Imports shared the prices Kopakama's members received for the past three years in this chart during the SCA panel:

KOPAKAMA Coop	2016	2017	2018	2019 (projected)
Avg. farmer price* $/lb. green	$.70/lb	$1.02/lb	$1.07/lb	$.80/ lb

* farmgate + 2nd payment + premiums

If your importer seems conflicted or "over asked" when you inquire about the price to the farmer, there's a fair chance that he/she doesn't know. And there's a fair chance they would like to know also, but they have been deflected by their contact at origin when they try to find out. YOU can be the catalyst towards more transparency and education about where value is in the value chain. YOU, as the roaster, have a powerful position in this chain, no matter what your size. If your volumes are small, then your questions and your responses to answers may not change current business practices in the short term. But, when you ask the questions and urge your supplier to get clear answers from their supplier, your voice makes a difference over the long run.

Cherry harvest in Rwanda

3. What is your pricing philosophy? There are many things to consider when it comes to your pricing philosophy, including how much to anchor on the NYBOT C-price, and how much time and money you, the roaster, wants to invest  to understand costs. Also, how much you believe the farmer should be able to dictate their own price. Kathy Tian, based on her experience in Colombia, recommends focusing on the following two thought processes first, which may help simplify and clarify the roaster's approach:

1)      Think about today’s farmers and future farmers. Try to understand the opportunity cost for a young person in the origin country who can consider coffee farming against other options to earn a living.

An importer could potentially play a critical role in helping you achieve this part of your pricing philosophy. For example, perhaps your importer can share what the opportunity costs are of current and future farmers at origin. More than likely, a young person will have alternatives available to them in agriculture. A knowledgeable importer may be able to share the exact value of opportunity costs for you.  

2)      Think about the power that you have in your value chain to lower costs, other than the price paid to the farmer. If you are a small roaster sourcing exclusively from farms of <0.5 hectares, your ability to realize cost savings upstream is very limited. Instead, consider ways in which you could lower costs at the roaster level.

There are a few ways to lower costs at the roaster level. One opportunity is for small roasters to encourage medium size roasters that benefit from economies of scale in packaging, retail, and transportation fees to take action to address the needs of small holder farmers. This is currently happening in the industry but could be amplified to create more rippling impacts in coffee communities around the world. 

A second option is for small roasters to work together and share supply chains—collaborating on sourcing. This should reduce costs of exports and imports by guaranteeing larger order quantities, which can be passed on to the farmer. 

Alternatively, some small roasters seek out green bean importers who act as the consolidator of many small orders and transparently share the cost savings with the producers. "Transparently" in this case means the importer can tell you the dollars and cents per unit (e.g. per pound green) the farmers received. (See 2 above.) 

Economic Sustainability Panel Offered at SCA Expo Boston

April 17, 2019
A few days ago a panel, organized by Artisan Coffee Imports, took place at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) Expo in Boston titled, "East Africa Quality Innovation."

Panelists were (LtoR):

·       Sara Yirga, moderator and founder of YA Coffee Roasters in Ethiopia

·       Rachel Samuel-Overton, Co-founder Gesha Village, Ethiopia (private estate)

·       Lauren Rosenberg, Managing Director, Long Miles Coffee, Burundi (private)

·       Ruth Ann Church, President of Artisan Coffee Imports, representing Kopakama coop, Rwanda

The combined insights from these speakers offered the audience an opportunity to hear how three East African organizations from three different countries -- Ethiopia, Burundi and Rwanda -- are tackling the complex contexts in which they work. They shared their stories of how they offer brilliant tasting, fruity East African coffee, with narratives that are genuine.

The panelists focused primarily on marketing, and how marketing green coffee as a producing organization requires also attention to price paid to suppliers (either farmers, workers or both) and quality control mechanisms, to control the quality of incoming coffee.

Gesha Village, the relatively new estate established in 2011 in Bench Maji zone, Ethiopia, shared an inspiring video that advertises their annual auction. The estate earns 15% of revenue from sales of the 6% of coffee sold during the auction. Prices can go as high as $100/lb green.

Long Miles Coffee, founded in 2013, offered the perspective of a private organization, working in a complicated and ever-changing regulatory context. Their mission is to uplift farmers and to do this, they find they must continuously find ways to work closer with the farmers, 12 months per year. Ms. Rosenberg also highlighted the visibility they give the story of the farmers through their Instagram posts and other media easily accessible to roaster- customers.

Kopakama, a cooperative started in 1998, represented the oldest organization and farmer-owned-and-controlled business model. Kopakama holds a triple certification (Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, Organic) and most notably pursues "Lean at Origin" processes. This management philosophy is well-known in other industries, but is new to coffee. With it, Kopakama is moving towards more efficiency, in order to allow its employees to focus on growth, not every-day fire-fighting.

Cherry Price and Farmers' Benefits

Farmer Field School – Abichizahamwa group

March 1, 2019

Today marks the day the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) will formally meet with about 100 owners of washing station in Rwanda and announce the "opening" floor price for cherry. They are setting it at an astonishingly low 190 Rwf/Kg cherry. That converts to about $.62/lb green and it is 36% less than the 300 Rwf/kg cherry ($1.07/ lb green) shown to be needed by farmers to incentivize best practices for coffee cultivation.

Several large exporters, however, are heavily invested in selling low-grade, fully-washed coffee. This is a product for which Rwanda cannot compete on a global stage against competitors from Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia. These exporters drag down the cherry price and retard the entrance of the entire Rwandan coffee sector into a new age where Rwandan coffee is recognized as the "Panama of Africa." 

The benefits to farmers are significant when exporters agree to pay a rational share of the FOB price as the cherry price. Artisan contracts require that farmers are paid at least 300 Rwf/Kg cherry, and we have documented the following benefits over the past year:

Farmer Field School – Abichizahamwa group: 6 men, 24 women

The Ejo Heza members in the FFS were asked if they remembered anything special that happened at the last general assembly. They remembered receiving the premium. Then the agronomist asked if anyone would like to share what they did with their premium. (Names changed.)

Valerie MUKASHIMANA

Rec’d 53,000 Frw (~ $60) premium from Artisan. She was able to buy 3 bags of cement and put pavement in the floor of one room - the dining room in her home. She wants to improve the taste of her coffee so that “we can continue to develop.”

Dorothe MUBARAGA

Rec’d premium of 12,400 Frw (~ $14). She bought chickens and hired a person to help her weed the coffee and the beans that she grows. Got the money when it was a ‘bad situation’ (poverty and hunger) in our community. Helped my family very much.

Marie MUKAHERESHIMA

Rec’d premium of 55,000 Frw (~$62). It helped her to buy another cow from which she can use the manure to fertilize her coffee organically.

These amounts of cash mentioned above can be verified in the list of 320 names showing that each woman signed for their premium on October 31, 2017. (A similar list is now available for the 2018 premium.) The premiums from roasters are impacting these women’s lives and motivating them when we explain new tasks and efforts we’d like them to try to improve quality and consistency, and avoid potato-taste defect.

Want to learn more about how powerful premiums are? Listen to one of two interviews with Bette UWIMANA - posted on-line in 2018:

Short one – CLICK HERE.

Long one – CLICK HERE.

To summarize, here are paraphrases of comments from Ejo Heza members Bette UWIMANA, Martha Uwiherewenimana and a comment from the male members of Kopakama:

* Bette says the women of Ejo Heza were very happy. She said that the primary uses of the extra money were school fees, purchase of small animals (goats, pigs, chickens), and the fee to be enrolled in “Mituel”, the national health insurance. 

* It inspires young, ambitious farmers to invest deeper in coffee and take on leadership roles. Bette Uwimana and her husband are a good example of this. Bette is 28 years old. She and her husband have 2 children, 8 and 4 years old. They’ve benefited from coffee for over five years, but only last year (2017) decided to join Ejo Heza. I suspect seeing the women receive the premium was the “decision-maker” for Bette. She has been on the staff at Kopakama for several years, seeing how the Ejo Heza women improve their production, and then seeing the premium she finally decided to join. She and her husband have 1,650 trees. Thus the impact of the premium is both individual and community: capacity building for Bette and new, young leadership for the Ejo Heza group. 

*Speaking to Martha Uwiherewenimana, the new president of the Kopakama cooperative, she personally appreciated receiving the premium last October and knows that the Ejo Heza women were amazed to receive this extra money directly in their hands. She is confident that premium will do much to overcome any objections to testing some new practices Artisan is suggesting to improve quality, (e.g. floating cherry to separate out floaters before paying the farmers).

* Appreciation - even from the men: When a group of male and female Kopakama farmers were asked (during a field school) whether conflicts or jealousy developed when the women of Ejo Heza received a premium, a male farmer answered. He said he was proud of his wife for being an Ejo Heza farmer, since that meant their household received a premium. If she had not been a member, the household wouldn’t have received any premium last year. (The cooperative normally pays a second-payment to all members in January, but in Jan. 2018 the members decided to pay down the loan they took out to build the dry mill.)

What Bette UWIMANA would like to tell you...

Bette Uwimana, one of the leaders of Ejo Heza.

Yesterday I had the honor to visit Kopakama with green coffee buyer, Aaron Van der Groen from Ritual Coffee in San Francisco, CA. We were both glad that Bette UWIMANA, a leader of the Ejo Heza women's cooperative, happened to be at the washing station that afternoon.  Bette, 28 years old, recently joined the cooperative with the objective to improve the production from her coffee trees. She's accepted a leadership role as manager of credit and loans for the group's microcredit program.

Aaron asked, "what would you like to tell our customers who drink your coffee?"

CLICK HERE to open a Youtube video and listen to Uwimana's answer in her own words (translated from Kinyarwanda to English by Gervais Kayitare).

Brief summary: "what I can say to our clients is that we hope they continue to build their relationships with our farmers so that we can increase our production. Another thing, we will continue to receive their advice related to the quality of our coffee." 

L: Kayitare, R: Uwimana

L: Uwimana, R: Van der Groen

L: Church, R: Uwimana