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Rwandan Coffee:
After so much devastation from sectarian violence
and genocide in the 1990's, coffee cultivation has created
new opportunities for Rwandan widows and orphans to work
their way out of poverty and instability. Rwanda is slowly
rebuilding, and quality coffee is becoming the principal
agricultural cash crop. Much is being done to make Rwanda's
coffee increasingly better with each crop and this coffee
is a prime example of their quality potential. With the
help of USAID, The PEARL Project and SPREAD, Rwanda is now
among the ranks of the best Specialty Coffee producers.
In Rwanda about 500,000 small family farmers
produce tiny amounts of coffee on their farms or in their
gardens. On average, they have only 200 trees which result
in roughly 300 pounds per family. These families average
6 persons so approximately 3 million people, half of the
country's population is engaged in growing coffee.
Coffee is grown in the western part of the
country and in the central area, near the capital of Kigali.
The eastern part of Rwanda, over 1/7th of the country, is
set aside as a national park and there is no coffee production
permitted.
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