Rwanda Trip Report 2026
When Covoya’s Sourcing Director Ian Kluse found himself with an unused plane ticket after a canceled industry meeting, he saw an opportunity to visit Rwanda, an origin he had never been able to see firsthand despite several decades of sourcing coffee. He invited Rachel Stanich, one of our junior traders, to join him, and in a quick two weeks, the trip came together. “It was my first time going to Africa,” Rachel says, “so even just getting everything lined up in that short window was part of the experience.” Despite the fast turnaround, their objective was practical: visit supplier partners that Ian has been working with for years, observe operations during harvest, and build deeper connections with a renowned origin for specialty coffee.
Early on in the trip, Ian was given a paper map of Rwanda by a supplier—a gesture that briefly reframed how they expected to navigate the country. “When Ian opened the map and charted our route to Dukunde Kawa, I imagined we’d be traveling without GPS, just following his finger across the page,” Stanich says. In practice, Rwanda proved far more connected than expected. “We had cell service most of the time,” she noted, and the main roads between regions were reliable, even if travel still took longer than anticipated once routes turned onto dirt roads leading into coffee communities.
Production in Rwanda is centered around cooperatives that manage one or more washing stations and provide agronomic and economic support to smallholder farmers, who in turn deliver cherry to centralized washing stations for collective processing. These cooperatives emerged in the early 2000s as part of government-led initiatives following the 1994 genocide, with a focus on producing high-quality, specialty grade coffee for export. “Compared to other countries, the co-ops are very well set up,” Ian says, “You can see the level of investment and organization.” Traceability and certifications are closely managed. Covoya has featured many Rwandan women-producer lots in the past, a separation not easily achieved elsewhere.
As such, visiting cooperatives was the focus of the first two days of the trip. At Dukunde Kawa Musasa Cooperative in the Northern Province, the team saw a mature example of Rwanda’s model. The site includes typical infrastructure for washing stations in Africa, such as a wet mill, fermentation tanks, and raised drying beds, but extends beyond processing coffee. The cooperative operates childcare services for members, a café and small roastery, and a dairy initiative that produces and distributes a traditional fermented yogurt called ikivuguto. Women make up around 80% of participation and the cooperative’s model reflects a deliberate effort to diversify income streams and stabilize farmer livelihoods beyond harvest cycles.
Cupping sessions during the trip focused on early-season washed coffees and the results were promising. “We were right in the middle of harvest, drying tables were full everywhere.” Ian notes. Despite the early stage, quality was already very good, with the red fruit and bright acidity typical of Rwandan profiles in evidence. Naturals and anaerobics were not yet available due to their longer drying timelines, but with the not-yet-rested early harvests showing well, the outlook is optimistic.
At their next stop, the Sholi Cooperative in Muhanga District, Ian and Rachel dove deeper on the systems that make Rwanda’s ability to supply organic-certified, Fair Trade, and women-produced coffees at scale possible: “Everything is tracked—every member, every delivery. That’s how it works, especially when you’re dealing with organic certification,” Ian notes.
Cherry is separated at intake based on producer identity and eligibility for specific programs. Payments are structured in layers: initial cherry purchase, followed by premiums depending on how the coffee is ultimately sold. “If it sells into a certified program, that changes the payment,” Ian explains. “Then there can be another payment after the co-op finalizes everything.” Similar to Dukunde Kawa, Sholi also runs many social programs for its members, including one supporting young single mothers who collectively manage approximately 6,500 coffee trees, with all proceeds directed to that group.
Sholi also provides a model example of how to deal with the notorious potato defect, still a major concern for buyers of Rwandan coffee. “At Sholi, they actually brought it up in their presentation and showed us some of the integrated pest management practices they use,” Rachel says. These strategies included systematic scouting of selected trees for infestation, pruning to improve airflow, removal of larvae when visible, and careful cherry selection before delivery. Organic-approved treatments such as pyrethrins—derived from chrysanthemum flowers—may also be used when necessary. While potato defect remains a concern in Rwanda, the strong infrastructural backing of the coops has focused a concerted effort on minimizing its prevalence, and issues are less frequent than ever.
The team’s third visit was to Huye Mountain Coffee, a privately managed operation working with more than 1,300 smallholders. At Huye, there is a greater emphasis on processing methods and experimentation. “At the drying stage, you could see small sections labeled as experimental,” Stanich noted. While washed coffees still dominate Rwanda’s exports, naturals and anaerobic processes are becoming more common, particularly among private operators with greater flexibility. Huye Mountain’s natural-process techniques are fully dialed in, and Covoya has brought in high-scoring, clean and compelling naturals from them for several years.
Reflecting back on their trip, both Ian and Rachel both left impressed by the high level of organization and collective maintenance across communities. “There’s a sense that people are taking care of things together,” Rachel says. That cohesion is reflected not only in public spaces but in how cooperatives are managed and how production systems are maintained. For both, the value of their trip was less about discovering a new origin and more about deepening context around a familiar one. “It’s different seeing it in person,” Ian says. “Even if you’ve been buying from these groups for years, being there gives you a better understanding.”
Rwanda remains a small origin by volume, but it offers a combination of strong cooperative infrastructure, high traceability, and consistent cup profiles that resonates in specialty markets. At the same time, factors like potato defect, pricing volatility, and logistical delays remain part of the sourcing equation. For buyers and roasters, the takeaway is not that Rwanda is simple, but that it is primed to adapt with the ever-evolving needs and tastes of the specialty coffee market.
