Climpson & Sons - Single Origin: Musasa Mbilima

The Musasa Dunkunde Kawa Cooperative has three washing stations lying high in Rwanda’s rugged northwest. Mbilima was the Cooperatives second washing station constructed in 2005 at a vertiginous 2,020 meters above sea level, making it one of Rwanda’s highest washing station.

Musasa Dukunde Kawa is one of Rwanda’s larger cooperatives with over 2100 members but when you understand that in Rwanda each farmer cultivates an average of 250-300 trees (that is less than a quarter of a hectare of land) it is not huge. Before the proliferation of these washing stations the small farmers of Rwanda used to sell their semi-processed cherries to a middleman, and the market was dominated by a single exporter. This formed a commodity-focused system which brought an extreme struggle and hardship to the farmers, some of whom were forced to abandon coffee entirely. Today, things have changed drastically for the better. The farmers who work with the cooperative have seen their income at least double and helped produced outstanding and memorable lots for the specialty coffee market year after year. This love and passion is seen in the name of the cooperative with `Musasa’ meaning `a place to make a bed’ and `Dunkunde Kawa’ meaning `lets love coffee’ in Kinyarwanda. Which also strikes a reference to the power coffee has to improve the lives of those in rural communities.

Roasterr: Climpson & Sons

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