Rwanda coffee before PEARL

Tim Schilling, left, and Dan Clay examine a coffee tree grown in the demonstration garden of the PEARL project and NUR Outreach Center in Butare. (Photo by Sue Nichols, University Relations, MSU)

Before the 1994 genocide, coffee was an important export crop in the rural farmlands, but not a crop that inspired passion. Most coffee is grown on small farms, of less than 200 trees.

Rwandans traditionally drink tea, not coffee, and the type they were growing was not subjected to high quality standards of selection and processing.

In the genocide, some 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days. Some 2 million fled to neighboring countries. When they returned, they faced a decimation of the work force, as many survivors were women and children. Many coffee plantations were deserted.

In the global market, prices for ordinary coffee plummeted. Many Rwandan farmers were prepared to abandon coffee farming, pulling up their trees to plant bananas or other food crops.

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