2.3.5 Transport of coffee
crops in Rwanda
Rwanda as a landlocked country with limited paved roads in
rural areas where most coffee is grown, transport costs in Rwanda are high.
Diop, Brenton, and Asarkaya (2005) argue that Rwanda's smallholder subsistence
farmers are disconnected from markets as a result of «extremely high»
transport costs. The authors estimate that transport costs from farm gates to
the export port of Mombasa were 80 percent of the producer price.20 Transport
within Rwanda itself was estimated at 40 percent of the producer price. If
transport costs were reduced, through the development of better rural
infrastructure and, in particular, more effective rural transport routes,
access to markets would improve and poverty levels would likely be reduced. The
authors find that a 50 percent reduction in the transport costs in rural areas
would lead to a 20 percent increase in producer prices for coffee, which in
turn would reduce poverty levels among coffee farmers by more than 6 percent.
Given the continued emphasis on coffee production as a strategy to alleviate
rural poverty, improving the rural transport system will be an important way to
connect farmers to markets and to increase their household income.Transport of
coffee contribute to the social conditions improvement ,the coffee cherries
harvested from farmers need many workers for transporting this one to the
industries of transforming coffee .thus these workers earn from this transport
of coffee.
2.3.4 Impact of coffee in
economy of Rwanda
2.3.4.1 Contribution of
coffee to entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs are investingin building coffee-washing
stations, where cherries areprocessed for sale. Rural communities are forming
cooperatives,some of which also build washing stations and processcherries.
Exporters are competing for opportunities to sellRwanda coffee to foreign
buyers. Other entrepreneurs haveestablished cafés that feature local
coffee. In other words,along a value chain, Rwandans are benefiting from
theopportunity to produce and sell specialty coffee.At the production level,
thousands of Rwanda's smallholderfarmers are benefiting from higher coffee
prices forfully washed specialty coffee.
NGOs have helped farmers establish cooperatives andhave
trained co-op members in quality control, processing,and marketing efforts. To
date, more than 100 washing stationshave been built around the country with the
supportof the government, donors, NGOs, and the private sectoras a result,
Rwanda is producing more high qualitycoffee and demand for the country's
specialty coffeeis increasing.Rwanda's coffee industry is that more of the
farmers(approximately 500,000) who grow coffee have an opportunityto sell their
beans for higher prices. The price thatcooperatives and private sector
coffee-washing stations arepaying farmers for cherries rose from between 60 and
80Rwandan francs in 2004 to between 160 and 180 Rwandanfrancs in 2008 (MINAGRI,
2008).
OneStudy finds that farmers who sell coffee cherries to
washingstations increase their annual expenditures by 17 percentcompared with
farmers who sell lower-quality parchmentcoffee (MUREKEZI and LOVERIDGE, 2009).
The samestudy indicates that since reform, coffee farmers haveincreased their
food consumption and their overall householdexpenditures, leading to improved
food security andto generally improve economic conditions for coffeefarmers.
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