Ever since we saw for ourselves the tremendous benefits which direct roaster-farmer relationships can bring to producers in Rwanda we have been looking to extend our work to other groups in the country.

Until now, it was necessary to nurture and support the Maraba farmers in terms of their skills and infrastructure development. As these improved our increased demand levels of high quality coffee were met each year. Yet demand has continued to surge as the popularity of speciality coffee from Rwanda converts more coffee lovers here in the UK. This is a fantastic achievement for a country which only a few years previous had no provenance for high quality coffee – and as such something we had to respond positively to.

We’re therefore delighted to introduce an additional Rwanda selection to our mail order customers which comes from the COCAGI co-operative. The name stands for ‘Co-operative des cafécultuerurs de Gishoma’ – Gishoma being the district where the co-operative is located – although the farmers themselves are more commonly known as ‘Gashonga’ which was the original district name. The area is where the first ever coffee tree was planted in Rwanda by Belgian white farmers during the colonial era.

COCAGI is located in the west of Rwanda, at the southern end of lake Kivu which makes up the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Like Maraba, the farmers started out as an association but after hearing the progress which was happening at Maraba, contacted the USAID funded development project which established Maraba (SPREAD) to see how they could emulate it. Maraba is known as the ‘Mother Co-operative’ in Rwanda, because today there are 46 other co-operatives that, like COCAGI, have learned from and followed the Maraba farmers’ success.

And like Maraba also, Gashonga is blessed with a good high altitude of 5,905ft and very rich volcanic soils. This allows for a very distinctive taste, noticeably different from Maraba with sublime flavours of cherry and tangerine in its medium bodied cup.