Rwanda: Why the government set a fixed coffee farm gate price

Raw Common Coffee Bean

Rwanda

Published Mar 7, 2023

Tridge summary

Unlike the common practice where the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) would set a farm gate price, the minimum price at which coffee cherries must be bought from farmers, it has set a fixed price this time around.

Original content

According to a communique issued by NAEB on February 23, 2023, the fixed price for a kilo of good quality coffee cherries is Rwf410 for the current season. With farm gate prices, farmers have the possibility to get higher prices for their produce, in case there are buyers. For instance, on February 11, 2022, NAEB announced that quality coffee cherries had to be bought from farmers at a minimum price of Rwf410 a kilo, an increase of 65 per cent from Rwf248 a kilo in the previous year. Claudine Uwineza, a coffee farmer from Nyamasheke District, Western Province, told The New Times mid-February that such a price was by far exceeded -- some farmers sold their produce at almost double that -- as coffee factories scrambled to get the produce from them. This situation resulted from the increase in coffee prices in the international market. But, with the fixed price, such a possibility is excluded. Fulgence Sebazungu, the president of the Rwanda Coffee Cooperatives Federation (RCCF), told ...

Source: All Africa