NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Part II: Rwanda Finds Hope in Coffee - Comments

I was just going through

coffee beans — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:24:31 -0400

I was just going through your stuff. Really, really nice.

Premium Coffee Sales Fall

Ethan Arpi — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:55:36 -0400

Here is an exerpt from today's Wall Street Journal: "Amid the broader prosperity of the past decade, Americans grew far more willing to shell out for $4 cups of coffee and $400 handbags. Retailers such as Starbucks Corp., Whole Foods Market Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc. -- operator of Pottery Barn and its own kitchen stores -- expanded by appealing to the aspirations of middle-class shoppers. Now, many of those retailers are feeling pinched. In recent weeks, Starbucks, Whole Foods and Williams-Sonoma -- along with others such as boat maker Brunswick Corp. and specialty-sandwich chain Panera Bread Co. -- have reported disappointing sales that sent their share prices lower. Restaurants catering to middle-income consumers are seeing a sales slump too. Growing evidence suggests the chief culprit is gasoline prices in the $3-a-gallon range -- up 71 cents from six months ago, according to federal data."

Ben, well written! I could

Ethan Arpi — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 09:39:20 -0400

Ben, well written! I could not agree more. Growing cash crops should not be seen as an end in itself, but as a means to developing larger swaths of the economy.

On Rwandan Coffee

_ben — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:29:11 -0400

The celebration of Rwanda's recent success as the new darling of the specialty coffee market is great. Farmers have benefited, and people need to know that there's a possibility for economic recovery after the genocide. But let's not get carried away here—I thank you for your critical eye and especially for your point on the danger of pinning economic development on a crop whose price is inextricably connected to a global commodity market. If peace in Rwanda is to be built on money from coffee, then it's a fragile peace, and that's frightening and terribly short-sighted for all involved.

Are increased prices to many of Rwanda's coffee farmers the end of the story, or are they a key step in a larger process?

Belgian colonial rule not only established coffee monocultures, but also defined a society that celebrated the Tutsi identity and belittled the Hutu. The definitions of this ethnic divide were (and are) intimately connected to economic class, and in particular, to patterns of agriculture. To be poor was to grow food crops, which was Hutu. Now the complexion of coffee has changed, and farmers seem to be proud to grow this crop. But considering the legacy of the last 70 years, how will the alliance of coffee companies, government agencies, and Rwandan cooperatives who've worked together for the past 4 years use coffee as a piece in a larger integrated strategy?

And beyond Rwanda, how does the fair trade movement continue to create a market that benefits farmers while not spurring dependence on a cash crop economy? What does a healthy cash crop economy look like anyway, and how would someone evaluate that balance?

Re: Permaculture as a Solution

Ethan Arpi — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 10:23:25 -0400

Thanks for your comment and I encourage you to keep posting on Nextbillion. I think that you are correct when you say that farmers who diversify their crops will be less vulnerable. At least to a point. The climate needed for coffee cultivation--relatively high altitude, volcanic soil, and mist--may not be ideal for cultivating most other crops.

permaculture as a solution?

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:51:03 -0400

To what extent could coffee growers mix other crops with the coffee trees, growing and harvesting both at the same time? IF this could be done, the extra crops might be able to take the edge off the down-turns, either through extra food, a more diverse income, or just more money to save up in the good times. Also, how secure is that bank mentioned in part I? If it's not, forget about the farmers saving their profits in the good times. . .

Part II: Rwanda Finds Hope in Coffee

Ethan Arpi — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:00:35 -0400

Part I of this series described Rwanda’s burgeoning cooperative movement and its thriving coffee industry, which have combined to alleviate crippling poverty and ethnic tensions in this country. Part II of this series places the current success of Rwanda’s coffee industry in a broader historical context and explains why export oriented development might not be such a good thing after all.

Part II
Coffee was introduced to what is now present day Rwanda by Belgium colonialists, who, in 1933, made it compulsory for Rwandan’s to grow coffee on at least a quarter of their land. Even today, more than forty years after independence, coffee has the foul aftertaste of colonialism here and many Rwanda’s refuse to drink it, opting instead for tea. But for highbrow American connoisseurs, Rwandan coffee is a delicacy. Premium coffee roasters, with snooty names like Intelligentsia, are coming to Rwanda in droves and paying upwards of $3.50 a pound for high quality beans. And with entire armies of coffee-sipping yuppies taking over neighborhood cafes in the United States, Rwanda’s coffee bean growers, who now produce some of the world’s highest quality beans, are finally seeing this vestige of colonialism pay off.