Letter From Our
Chief Executive Officer

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you in partnering with us to change the lives of women coffee farmers and their communities throughout East Africa, and scale the program to wider geographic scopes and increase the impact. Since 2013, Sustainable Growers Rwanda have been working diligently to support women farmers, and their families, improve their professional approach to growing and trading specialty coffee, so they can form direct, productive relationships with coffee cooperatives, processors, importers and roasters.

As we train women and build their capacity to guarantee the production of the best quality of coffee, the sustainability of the sector and environmental practices are central to our program.

Profitability is a big part of sustainability. If the women are not making profit from their crop their involvement in the coffee sector may diminish. In Rwanda, for example, coffee was known as a male's crop and is still dominated by them, as women farmers represent only 32% of the total coffee farmers nationwide (NAEB, 2015). Women are also underrepresented in other stages of the coffee value chain especially in coffee processing and trade business. Research indicates that yields on farms worldwide can increase by up to +30% if women are given the same productive resources as men. This is especially true because during their first harvest after our training in 2015, graduates from our program experienced a yield growth of 300%.

We also encourage environmentally smart agricultural practices that support farmers to prove their adherence to voluntary sustainability standards and their care for the environment for generations to come.

With your donation or coffee purchase through our program, we can support women and their families to improve their livelihoods by producing coffee more sustainably. In addition, you can rest assured of the best quality specialty coffee.