OCIR-CAFE was created
in 1978 as an autonomous public institution in order
to supervise the coffee sector, which is today mostly
liberalized. But in order to better understand your
mission, can you briefly describe the main tasks
of your institution and especially the role it played
in the process of rehabilitation of sector after
the war?
OCIR-Café was created in 1978 following
the disappearance of the "Office des Cultures
Industrielles du Rwanda" encompassing the
Tea and coffee sector. Ocir-Thé and Ocir-Café
are now two independent institutions. So, since
1978, Ocir-Café has been in charge of promoting
the sector on local and international markets,
looking after the coffee producers, controlling
quality of exported coffee. Before '94, the sector
exported 30% of the national production, especially
towards Western Europe. After '94, we gave up
our trading activities alongside the liberalization
of the sector. The private sector took over the
trade of coffee. Ocir-café is today completely
restructured and has a role of supervisor. We
are also highly committed to coordinating the
dialogue between all parties involved in the coffee
sector and determining new development policies.
In this framework, the private sector (producers,
transporters, exporters, banks) is even represented
in our board of Directors.
Have you been able to measure the impact of
the liberalization policy implemented after 1994?
As far as OCIR-Café is concerned, the
transfer of trading activities to the private
sector affected our financial capacity. But the
difficulties that we face are not really coming
from the liberalization process but rather from
structural problems at the international level.
Of course we cannot ignore the negative effects
of the war on the production levels. Before 1994,
the average national production of coffee was
around 35,000 tons per year and after 1994 until
now, we have been around 19,000 tons. The quality
got also affected: we went down from a high standard
rating (75%) to a low price commodity coffee.
All this, combined with the international drop
in prices has contributed to level down the productivity
as more producers, discouraged by the fall in
their revenues, tend to work less efficiently,
which makes them enter a vicious circle of productivity
and quality reduction.
Another factor responsible for the lower productivity
is the plants' oldness and the reduced soil fertility.
It is now up to the government to undertake the
necessary measures to boost the sector. They have
already adopted a new policy, a 10-year development
plan with a new vision for the sector. New strategies
have been implemented to increase production and
quality.
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We have decided to promote and reinforce producers'
associations. Now, you can find an association
of producers in almost every district of the country.
Besides, we note that the private sector is now
starting to invest in the improvement of the coffee
quality. Trading companies such as SICAF that
used to buy and export only is now investing upstream
at the production level. Some private investors
also start creating great plantation fields up
to 50ha.
So, those new investment initiatives from the
private sector encourage small producers to invest
as well.
Investors are now building new washing stations
for a better processing and the production of
"specialty" coffee of high quality.
As a result we can feel that international financial
institutions are sensitised by this initiative
and start helping us develop the sector.
USAID is highly involved in helping producers'
associations. It even helps them to place their
production on the US market.
We have noted that all the entities involved
in the sector tend to get vertically integrated,
leading to a reduction of intermediaries and a
better synergy between producers and distributors.
What has been your role in this process?
It is our role to promote the creation of associations
between producers, exporters and make them come
together to discuss the best policies to adopt
in order to develop efficiently the sector. Those
global structures ease the access to loans as
they facilitate the task of local financial institutions
when it comes to providing funds and services
to the sector.
Apart from the USA, what are the export markets
that you are currently targeting?
We are constantly prospecting for new markets.
But as long as our coffee's quality improves,
we know that we will not have any difficulties
in selling it. Recently, there was a conference
on specialty coffee held in Norway. Four Rwandan
exporters went there to present samples that were
highly rated. Those companies have now established
contacts that will enable them to sell their production
to the Norwegian market. Of course, we have to
strengthen the promotion and the marketing of
our coffee throughout the world.
How do you intend to position your coffee
on the regional market?
Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania
have created an association called "East
African Fine Coffee Association" (EAFCA).
So, we work together to promote the coffee from
the region. I was recently in London for the ICO
(International Coffee Organization) conference.
The Vice - President of "Starbucks",
an American Coffee Importing Company that owns
Coffee shops in USA and Europe, mentioned the
fact that they would like to buy a lot of coffee
from Eastern Africa. But now we have the possibility
to enter the competition as our quality is improving.
What we want to is to create "label"
for each country of the region but promote and
sell it together. Within 2 years time, Rwanda
should be able to sell some of its coffee through
Internet auctions. In the meantime, we keep on
selling through our four private exporters.
But we are not only targeting international markets,
we are also trying to promote our coffee on the
national and regional market as we believe the
COMESA Free Trade Area can bring us new opportunities.
The key is to create the need for our coffee and
for that we have to emphasize on promoting our
product.
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RWANDA
