COUNTRY: Rwanda

REGION: Nyamasheke, Western Province

FARMER/GROWER: Celestin and Marie Rumenerangabo and 236 other households

VARIETIES: Red Bourbon

PROCESSING: Washed

ALTITUDE: 1700 - 2100 m.a.s.l.

We Taste: Cherry Cola, Black Tea, Meyer Lemon

Description: Over 200 households deliver their coffee cherries to the Muhororo washing station where coffee is freshly pulped and fermented for 12-14 hours before being fully washed and dried on raised beds for 12-15 days.

At the age of 17, after three years of working and saving as a housekeeper, Celestin returned to home and purchased land to plant his first 380 coffee plants with the intention to support his single mother. As they got started, his mother would take care of the coffee plants while he developed relationships with buyers and local brokers.

In 1983 he was married to a school teacher Marie Goretti. As a family they distributed scales and milling equipment to grower partners, built collection sites, established new farms and started to support schooling for children from coffee growing families. 

In 1994 the genocide saw nearly one million Tusis killed. Marie and Celestin fled to Idjwi Island in Lake Kivu. In 1998, they returned to Rwanda with their six children to restart from the ground up. The farms and plants were still intact, but many of the partners in the business were gone, they had no cash and Celestin’s mother was in failing health. Still, Mr. Rumenerangabo’s reputation within the community gave him the support he needed to rebuild and within 2 years he was trading nearly 30 tonnes of parchment coffee!