[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/miffrp/279858.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Understanding and Improving the Price-Quality Relationship in Rwanda's Coffee Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Church, Ruth Ann
Abstract
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY At 15 years old, specialty coffee is a relatively new sub-sector of Rwanda’s long-standing coffee industry. As such, structures and policies to maximize coffee quality are still evolving and have room for improvement. The problem examined in this report includes the obstacles preventing the sector from reaching the Government of Rwanda’s (GOR’s) stated goal of 80 percent high quality coffee coffee instead of only 55 percent, (the status quo in 2017). The approach used by the author is to demonstrate and quantify the effects of not reaching the quality targets from three perspectives: that of the producer, the exporter, and the GOR. The models indicate that producers lost 125 RWF/kg cherry sold in the time period considered, exporters had 43 percent lower profits than might have been possible, and the country missed an estimated $2.6 million in foreign exchange, just in 2016. The damage from potato taste defect is estimated at $.30 - $2.00 per pound FOB for exported green coffee, depending on the quality level.* These estimated, unrealized gains provide the impetus to examine possible solutions. Five case studies of exemplary East African coffee organizations give concrete examples of how some cooperatives and private companies have invested to improve cherry purchasing practices and improve quality. At the end, marketing and policy recommendations are offered to support further increases in the value of Rwanda’s coffee. * Potato taste defect is a taste defect occurring in coffee in Rwanda’s region. It creates a musty, vegetal taste, like a raw potato, in the brewed coffee.

Suggested Citation

  • Church, Ruth Ann, 2018. "Understanding and Improving the Price-Quality Relationship in Rwanda's Coffee Sector," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers 279858, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:miffrp:279858
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.279858
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/279858/files/FSP%20Research%20Paper%20110.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/279858/files/FSP%20Research%20Paper%20110_2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/279858/files/FSP%20Research%20Paper%20111.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.279858?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew Gerard & Joseph Bigirimana, 2018. "Mitigating Antestia Bug Damage and the Potato Taste Defect in Rwandan Coffee," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Briefs 303567, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    2. Gerard, Andrew & Bigirimana, Joseph, 2018. "Mitigating Antestia Bug Damage and the Potato Taste Defect in Rwandan Coffee," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Briefs 275673, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Glenn P. Jenkins & Ludovic Mbakop & Mikhail Miklyaev, 2023. "Enhancing Coffee Quality in Rwanda: A Cost Benefit Analysis of Government Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-27, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:miffrp:279858. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/damsuus.html .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.