Aid, trade and the post-war recovery of the Rwandan coffee sector

Guariso, Andrea; Verpoorten, Marijke

doi:10.1080/17531055.2018.1480091

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…This is not unique to Ethiopia. [ 63 ] also documented a case where coffee farmers in Rwanda were reluctant to sell in red berries even when they had the possibility to do so (this consequently led to lower levels of washed coffee production in the country with the washing stations operating below capacity). The farmers rather preferred to sell in what the authors call ‘ordinary coffee’ (i.e., dried berries).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Value addition and farmers: Evidence from coffee in Ethiopia

Tamru¹,

Minten

2023

PLoS ONE

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Local value-addition in developing countries is often aimed at for upgrading of agricultural value chains, since it is assumed that doing so will make farmers better off. However, transmission of the added value through the value chain and constraints to adoption of value-adding activities by farmers are not well understood. We look at this issue in the case of coffee in Ethiopia–the country’s most important export product–and value-addition in the coffee value-chain through ‘washing’ coffee, which is done in wet mills. Washed coffee is sold internationally with a significant premium compared to ‘natural’ coffee but the share of washed coffee in Ethiopia’s coffee exports has stagnated. Relying on a unique primary large-scale dataset and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we examine the reasons for this puzzle. The reasons seemingly are twofold. First, labor productivity in producing red cherries, which wet mills require, is lower than for natural coffee, reducing incentives for adoption, especially for those farmers with higher opportunity costs of labor. Second, only impatient, often smaller, farmers sell red cherries, as more patient farmers use the storable dried coffee cherries as a rewarding savings instrument, given the negative real deposit rates in formal savings institutions.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Value addition and farmers: Evidence from coffee in Ethiopia

Tamru¹,

Minten

2023

PLoS ONE

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“…Figures 3-4 indicate that the value of coffee exported has increased since 1994. Yet such progress masks the fact that changes in the value of Rwandan coffee exports have been closely related to changes in New York-C prices (Guariso and Verpoorten, 2018). It is also difficult to argue that such benefits have been realised by coffee farmers especially since farmer compensation has remained stagnant in comparison with other East African countries (Clay et al, 2016).…”

Section: Source: Faostatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The legacy of these investments has meant that most CWSs are currently characterised by under-utilisation. Nearly 75 percent of CWSs still used traditional wet mill machines with uneconomical oversized capacity (Guariso and Verpoorten, 2018). There is considerable variation, with some CWSs operating at above 100 percent capacity and others no longer in operation or operating at very low capacity.…”

Section: Rwanda's Political Settlement and The Coffee Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

The Politics of Upgrading in Global Value Chains: The Case of Rwanda’s Coffee Sector

Behuria

2018

SSRN Journal

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Two parallel tracks of research on economic transformation in developing countries have operated at a distance from each other over the last two decades. A global track-global value chains/global production networks (GVC/GPNs)-has focused on the increasing interconnectedness of global trading networks and has overlooked the role of the state and the explanatory power of domestic political economy. Meanwhile, a domestic track-including literature on developmental states, industrial policy and political settlements-has tended to take a methodologically nationalist perspective to examine economic transformation in developing countries, with limited reflections on external economic and political pressures. This paper contributes to an emerging stream of literature that examines how the domestic and global scales influence how developing country governments and firms tackle the challenge of economic upgrading. By combining insights from the political settlements and GVC/GPNs literature, this paper examines the Rwandan government's attempt at upgrading its coffee production to enter specialty coffee markets. It shows how the existing GVC/GPNs literature makes an important contribution to describing how multipolar governance influences the pathways for economic upgrading in Rwanda's coffee sector, but that even where access is granted, benefits are captive to the demands of international buyers, and gains for some have not translated across the sector. Insights from the political settlements literature showcase how domestic politics influences who benefits from insertion to GVC/GPNs and how the unequal provision of opportunities affects political stability.

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“…During the civil war in the early 1990s and the subsequent 1994 genocide, approximately 800,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed within 100 days. The civil war left many more people displaced, and millions of refugees returning from DR Congo and Tanzania still needed to be resettled in 1999 (Guariso and Verpoorten, 2018). Yet, since the civil war and genocide, Rwanda development has been considerable.…”

Section: Study Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The vast majority of coffee produced in Rwanda is Arabica coffee (Behuria, 2020). Introduced by German missionaries in 1904, the Belgian rulers made cultivation compulsory in 1933 (Guariso and Verpoorten, 2018). When Rwanda became independent in 1962, the postcolonial government prohibited the uprooting of coffee trees.…”

Section: Coffee Production In Rwandamentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability certification, climate risk perception and smallholder coffee production in Rwanda

Gather¹

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Coffee production is an important source of export revenue for producing countries, especially for small, agriculture-dependent economies like Rwanda. Coffee production is a key driver in the development and improvement of rural livelihoods, serving as a source of cash income for the many coffee-producing households. The coffee value chain in Rwanda changed visibly since the early 2000s. Since then, the number of Coffee Washing Stations increased considerably, as did the share of fully washed coffee production. Rwanda's coffee sector is now a well-established player in the international speciality coffee market.Despite considerable improvements, productivity remains low, as farmers struggle with pests and diseases, poor soil fertility and insufficient access to fertilisers. These challenges faced by coffee producers call for suitable and sustainable solutions. With coffee farmers also facing the repercussions of progressing climate change, the present dissertation aims to identify ways to support smallholder coffee producers in their efforts to respond to the challenges they face. Therefore, the thesis taps into two important fields of research on coffee producersclimate change adaptation and sustainability certification. First, the thesis evaluates the role of certification in improving farmers' economic and environmental performance. Secondly, it addresses the question of how farmers respond to climate change, and how they can be supported in their efforts. The dissertation consists of two case studies from Rwanda and one chapter reviewing the literature on climate change adaptation. The data for the empirical research was collected from September to December 2019 in three climatic regions in Rwanda.The first empirical essay analyses the relationship between Rainforest Alliance certification and environmental-economic outcomes. Results show that certification is significantly correlated with good agricultural practices and biodiversity-related practices. Overall, environmentally friendly practices are commonly used in the research area, and they are more prevalent in the regions more suitable for coffee production. Rainforest Alliances' ability to increase adoption of good agricultural practices is thus higher in regions where initial adoption rates are lower. The connection between the certification and good agricultural practices hence appears to be stronger in the region less suitable for coffee production, where previous adoption rates are lower than in the regions more suitable for coffee production. I would like to thank my first supervisor Prof. Dr. Meike Wollni for the opportunity to work on a topic I am still very much interested in. The freedom you left allowed me to learn, develop and grow in my own time. Second, I would like to thank my second and third supervisors, Prof. Dr. Carola Paul and Prof. Dr. Matin Qaim. Your feedback in discussing my work at different stages throughout my PhD contributed to refining my research ideas and papers. I would like to extend my gratitude to Dr. Dr. Daniel Hermann...

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Aid, trade and the post-war recovery of the Rwandan coffee sector

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

Value addition and farmers: Evidence from coffee in Ethiopia

Value addition and farmers: Evidence from coffee in Ethiopia

The Politics of Upgrading in Global Value Chains: The Case of Rwanda’s Coffee Sector

Sustainability certification, climate risk perception and smallholder coffee production in Rwanda

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