Region: Rwandan

Farm: Dukundekawa Musasa

Variety: Red Bourbon

Altitude: 1,900 - 2,200

Processing: Natural

Notes: Plum, strawberries & cream, milk chocolate

Farm & Location: The Mussa Dukunde Kawa Cooperative is located in the town of Musasa, 70km from the Kigali capital of Rwanda.

Dukunde Kawa means "Let's Love Coffee" in Kinyarwanda (Rwanda's official language).

The cooperative was born in 2000 and is one Rwanda's largest cooperatives. The farms work on a diverse cultivation of the land with coffee trees, maize and beans being grown together. This allows the farmers to combine their harvests so that they only pick the coffee cherries when they are ripe and ready for harvest and so improves the quality of the coffee harvest. The coffee is cultivated near a mountain gorilla habitat at around 1,800 masl, in Rwanda's rugged North-West.

By producing high-end coffee for the international market and employing a majority female workforce, the cooperative ensures maximum benefits to local families. In 2003 it built a washing station with funds provided by the Rwandan ministry of defence. In exchange for this support, the Dukunde Kawa donates 10% of its net profits annually to fund the construction of other washing station throughout Rwanda.

Fair-trade Certified since 2004, Dukunde Kawa secures a high standard of living for Rwandan farmers by ensuring access to an economically and environmentally sustainable coffee industry. 80% of Dukunde Kawa's producers are women. Each member has been able to buy a farm animal, and many now have health insurance for the first time. Dukunde Kawa also constructed 2 schools for local children in 2006 and provides its members and workers with long term credit at no interest. 

*All coffees are roasted to order