Gasharu CWS Natural Gr A1 - Nyamasheke - Western Province

Name: Gasharu CWS
Location: Macuba Sector, Nyamasheke district, Western Province
Foundation year: 2014
Manager: Valentin Kimenyi
Number of farmers: 1650
Production: Up to 8 containers
Processing methods:  Natural, Washed, Honey and Anaerobic experiments
Altitude of the farms: 1600 - 2100 masl
Altitude of the CWS: 1670 masl
Average yearly rainfall: 1300-1400 mm
Soil: Acidic Soil
Projects: Support farmers in organizing as cooperatives and train them in governance and finances so that they can have savings for the future
Cup profile: Gingerbread, cinnamon, apple pie, ripe red fruit (hint of tropical fruits), cacao nibs with high sweetness, smooth body and rum-like aftertaste

About Gasharu CWS: Coffee plantations in the Gasharu region benefit from their proximity to the continuous of Nyungwe National Park. They get a good amount of rainfall to make the cherries juicier and the coffee fruity.

Throughout the year, Gasharu Coffee holds small group meetings with coffee farmers to catch up on life, discuss the challenges in farming and to discuss opportunities. Though my father and owner of the company Celestin is not an agronomist, he has always received calls from coffee farmers to advise on farming and processing due to his experience in farming. Today I am giving farming advice too. I am one of his nine sons and I  have both farming experience and academic training as an agronomist. I provide more scientific-based farming and harvesting guidance whenever needed.

Read more about Gasharu here.

“The 1994 genocide against the Tutsis that got nearly 1,000,000 Tutsis killed and many people fleeing the country was a tragic experience and devastating for my family. Many local partners were killed, others fled the country and my family left Rwanda and spent four years at Ijwi Island in the Lake Kivu, a part that belongs to the Democratic Republic of Congo and is the second-largest inland island in Africa. In 1998, my parents Marie and Celestin with their six children returned to Rwanda and restarted the business from zero. The coffee farms were intact but getting started again was extremely difficult, having lost the majority of our partners, no cash in hand and with my grandmother no longer in good health...”