2017 Africa Coffee Buying Trip

2017 Africa Coffee Buying Trip Rwanda

Jack Kelly, CEO and head coffee buyer for Ladro Roasting, is on a 2017 Africa coffee buying trip. Traveling with Atlas Coffee, he and other coffee roasters are visiting farms, coops and sampling coffees from Rwanda and Uganda.

Easily locate Rwanda on the continent of Africa.

View of the coffee drying beds at Kopakama in Rwanda.

Many of the Kopakama cooperative members welcomed Kelly’s group and thanked them for visiting the cooperative and farms. Kelly’s word to describe the experience is “humbling”. KOPAKAMA is an abbreviation of ˝Koperative y’Abahinzi ba Kawa ba Mabanza˝, which means: Coffee growers cooperative of Mabanza. According to a study conducted about the impacts of coffee washing stations (CWS) and the Kopakama, coffee farming through rural organizations (cooperative and coffee washing station) set up in rural areas, allows producers to earn best prices and other services and facilities to the farmers.” Farmers also learn new techniques that help them increase coffee quality and consequently revenue.

Welcoming group of cooperative members at Kopakama in Rwanda.

New friends from Kopakama Cooperative and Jack Kelly with his traveling companions.

2017 Africa Coffee Buying Trip Uganda

Then the group then traveled to Uganda to visit more coffee producers. Visiting the Bukonzo Joint Cooperative, winner of the 2015 Specialty Coffee Association Sustainability Award for its pioneering approach to gender justice enlightened all the members of the travel group about the group’s work towards social, economic and political transformation. Over 80 percent of the members are women who operate roughly 5,500 small coffee farms in the region.

Careful hand sorting is just one of the details of coffee production that increases quality and deliciousness in the cup.

The cows on the Uganda countryside caught Jack’s interest.

If you’d like to learn about other trips to coffee origin, you can continue here.