Perhaps the station with the most revered coffees of all our Rwandan speciality lots, Gitwe is in fact the smallest washing station of all Rwanda Trading Company’s stations in the Western Province. Covering an area of less than 1 hectare, Gitwe is blessed with being situated at the top of a mountain valley at almost 2000 metres. Just 3km from Gatare and near to the town of Kamina in the Karambi sector, Gitwe is the name of the land on which the station is built. Healthy coffee trees and tropical fruit line the trail down to the station from the road above.

Built recently in 2016 and bought by RTC in 2018, the washing station has 6 full time staff members and an addition 50 during the season, 90% women.

Despite being a tiny station, 1020 farmers contribute to Gitwe’s annual production of 500 tons of cherry, which is all high scoring specialty quality. Farm sizes range from just 150 coffee trees to 6000 (2.5 hectares) and all farmers have received training through RTC’s training program. Though most farms are 2-3km from the station, many of the farmers are elderly with limited mobility and so the area is serviced by RTC through 15 cherry collection points. 

Station manager, Augustin, is originally from Kigali but  left the city in favour of the mountain air and rural environment after a period of ill health. He left the city to manage and live near the washing station in 2018 and has not been sick since.

The region

Over the past decade many of the coffee washing station sites in Rwanda’s growing regions have been poorly maintained and experienced periods of unstable management, resulting in times of instability for the farming communities that rely on them for processing their cherry and as an essential source of household income.

In recent years, Rwanda Trading Company (RTC) set out to purchase and restore these sites, employing full time staff to manage and maintain them as well as re-establishing them as places of stable as well seasonal employment for local people.

Our importer purchases all their Rwandan coffee through RTC. This ensures transparency, direct impact in the field and the security to farmers of repeat business year after year. Premiums are also paid to farmers at the end of the season.

RTC are committed to forming long-term partnerships with the farming communities around each station site by encouraging farmers to enrol in their coffee Agribusiness Training Program. The program is overseen and run by RTC’s highly trained and experienced team of field officers who are focussed on collaborating with farmers to increase their annual yield quality and therefore their household income, providing participants access to better, more sustainable supply chains.