Africa’s coffee producers urged to increase domestic consumption

Kigali, Rwanda | Xinhua | African coffee-producing countries should increase local consumption of their coffees which could cushion economies against external market shocks, officials said Thursday during a conference.

“As we strive to meet global demand, we also remain aware of the fact that designing local solutions to promote domestic consumption among producers is paramount,” said Ildephonse Musafiri, Rwanda’s minister of State for Agriculture, while opening the 19th African Fine Coffees Conference and Exhibition in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.

The event due to close Friday brought together 1,000 coffee roasters, traders, producers, connoisseurs and industry captains.

Musafiri urged all stakeholders in Africa’s coffee industry to ensure sustainable economic growth and improved livelihoods for coffee producers as key to the industry’s sustainability.

Rwanda consumes about 3 percent of the coffee produced in the country and 97 percent is exported, according to estimates from Rwanda’s National Agricultural Export Development Board.

Solomon Rutega, the secretary general of the International Coffee Organization, said for sustainability in the African coffee industry to be achieved, a multi-stakeholder approach must be adopted, where all players in the value chain are committed and share the same dream to transform and create lasting systemic impact.

“We must continue advocating for an enabling policy environment to facilitate inter-regional trade, domestic coffee consumption, harmonized standards, access to finance and digitalization and traceability,” said Rutega.

Amir Hamza, the chairman of the African Fine Coffee Association, said that the coffee businesses can only survive if everyone in the value chain finds their businesses profitable.

Claude Bizimana, the chief executive of Rwanda’s National Agricultural Export Development Board, said efforts to increase local coffee consumption require increasing coffee processing factories as well as scaling up coffee shops which would also increase off-farm jobs.