Warehouse in Kigali

 Samuel Abikunda (Rwanda)

Rwanda, the "land of a thousand hills" in Central and East Africa, with mountains and rivers spreading amid pleasant landscapes, is a famous summer resort in Africa. The pristine natural system of these places has an amazing biological diversity, various kinds of wild animals have spread throughout its volcanoes, tropical forests and wide plains. Many travelers to Rwanda hope to see the "national treasure" - mountain gorillas.

Departing from the capital of Kigali, located at an altitude of 1,700 meters above sea level, and moving towards the Virunga mountain range in the northern part, you will be accompanied by the meandering Nyaberongo River all the way. Large and small coffee plantations are scattered here and there, as well as a coffee brand called Gorilla, named after a Rwandan national treasure.

Rwanda has a unique coffee growing environment, stable atmospheric precipitation and volcanic soil, with most of the coffee trees planted in the highlands at an altitude of 1,700 to 2,000 meters above sea level.

Rwandan Gorilla coffee sold in Chinese supermarkets

The further you move towards the coffee plantation in the mountains, the asphalt road under the tires turns into a narrow and uneven dirt road. And the air becomes so fresh that it seems that you can smell the aroma of coffee beans.

Already the third and fourth generations of many villagers have been growing coffee here, and coffee is the economic backbone of the whole family. There are about 400,000 coffee producers in this East African country. In the past, due to the lack of technology and equipment to produce high quality coffee beans, as well as the lack of good international trade cha Warehouse in Kigali nnels and negotiating ability, the quality and price of coffee beans did not rise.

In March, the coffee beans on the coffee tree change color from green to yellow and turn red. Farmers know it's time to harvest.

Didian, as usual at this time, begins a hot season, his small coffee plantation is the only source of income for a family of four. The whole process from collecting coffee beans to rinsing, removing shells, fermentation, drying, etc. the whole process of processing from the fruit to the highest quality product takes almost a month. Despite the hard work during the ripening of the crop, the income of Rwandan farmers, who have exported raw coffee beans for a long time, is very meager.

One day, Didian heard that a group of Chinese people had come to the village and said they would sell coffee from here to China via the Internet. He took it as news and did not attach any importance. After all, China is such a distant country, how can people buy our coffee beans thousands of miles away?

But something happened that he had never expected.

Employees from China and Rwanda in front of a coffee plantation

In October 2018, the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba sold Rwandan coffee to China. From the comfort of their homes, Chinese consumers were able to purchase quality Bourbon coffee beans sourced directly from Rwanda.

On the very first day when the offer was posted online, everything was sold out!

Over the next three months, Rwandan coffee brands sold more than 2,000 bags of coffee beans to China through Alibaba's e-commerce platform. Not only did subsequent demand continue to rise, other Chinese companies began ordering large quantities of goods from Rwandan coffee producers, and many Chinese visiting Rwanda also began making special visits to local coffee factories.

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