Coffee production in Rwanda may climb 10 percent this year, boosted by wider use of fertilizers and as trees planted three years ago begin to yield, the Rwanda Coffee Development Authority said.
Output may increase to 22,000 metric tons in the 12 months through December, from 20,000 tons last year, Managing Director Alex Kanyankole said at a regional coffee conference yesterday in Arusha, northern Tanzania. Last year, production fell 17 percent after “bad weather” cut yields, he said.
“We are using more fertilizers and the new trees are coming into production,” Kanyankole said. “The weather has so far been favorable.”
Rwanda plans to boost coffee production to as much as 40,000 tons over the next five years through wider planting, according to the authority’s website. Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop chain, is the biggest buyer of the country’s coffee.
The East African nation’s production in 2010 was 26 percent lower than an initial forecast of 27,000 tons, according to the authority. The country earned $56 million from last year’s harvest, Kanyankole said.
Coffee in Rwanda, which produces the arabica variety, is reaped from March to July. The country exports more than 98 percent of its crop in the form of green beans, the authority said.
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