Minani Anastase, Rwanda | FILTER

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The Musasa Dukunde Kawa cooperative operates four washing stations nestled in the rugged highlands of northwest Rwanda. The first of these, Ruli, was built in 2003 with a development loan from the Rwandan government and support from the USAID-funded PEARL project. Situated at an impressive 1,999 meters above sea level, it remains one of Rwanda’s highest washing stations.

The PEARL program played a transformative role in Rwanda’s coffee industry, shifting the focus from mass production to high-quality specialty coffee. This shift allowed Rwanda to enter the premium global coffee market. PEARL and its successor, SPREAD, have been instrumental in helping small-scale coffee farmers rebuild their livelihoods following the devastating 1994 genocide and the global coffee crisis of the 1990s.

Most of the smallholder farmers working with Musasa Dukunde Kawa own less than a quarter of a hectare of land, cultivating an average of just 250–300 coffee trees alongside subsistence crops like maize and beans. The cooperative provides them with the opportunity to combine their harvests and process coffee cherries centrally. Before washing stations like Ruli became widespread, farmers typically sold semi-processed cherries to middlemen, and a single exporter dominated the market. This commodity-driven system, along with plummeting global coffee prices in the 1990s, caused significant hardship—forcing some farmers to abandon coffee farming altogether.

Today, the landscape has changed dramatically. Farmers working with Musasa Dukunde Kawa have seen their incomes more than double, and the cooperative consistently produces exceptional specialty coffee. The name "Musasa" means "a place to make a bed," while "Dukunde Kawa" translates to "let’s love coffee" in Kinyarwanda—symbolizing the power of coffee to uplift rural communities.