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In Rwanda, coffee is not a product be-
For small farmers, with no access to the riches that
major mined resources offer, namely gold, tin ores, and ing grown, it is income, loans, educa-
tungsten ore (Rwanda is the world’s biggest exporter),
coffee is the lifeline to bettering their lives. According tion, health care, opportunity; it is life.
to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2022
coffee was the country’s third largest export commodity
(US$112M), landing as the top export among what is sent
of the US$61.7M in exports to the United States, one of
its top export partners (US$35.9M of this US$61.7M
accounted for by coffee).
Before co-founding St Remio, Trent Knox went to do within my farm that can hinder erosion and landslides—
Rwanda to speak on Melbourne coffee culture at a Global they need to have that knowledge.”
Coffee Symposium. It was during this trip that he met a In Rwanda, the most support coffee farmers can find
Rwandan coffee farmer who had been growing coffee for is by gathering into cooperatives. “There are all of these
fifty years but did not know what coffee was. How could women, they’re all small plot landholders, and they’re all
she not know? Effectively, the people, primarily women, working with these different techniques. The idea is they
who regularly confront the treachery of the Rwandan got this group together, and what they’re doing is like a
landscape and the back-breaking work of picking the cher- pilot program to teach these women as a group how to work
ries, carrying sometimes 20-40kg on their heads for long together, farming techniques, when to pick the cherries,”
distances to washing stations, processing the seeds, and Trent said of his first visit to the TUK cooperative back in
bringing the green to market were being converted from 2015. After becoming Rainforest Alliance certified, St
maternal to mechanical by a global industry disinterested Remio began supporting Cocagi, the cooperative highlight-
in the part of Rwandan coffee that sets it apart. Rwandan ed in the film. One of the numerous cooperatives all over
coffee is a coffee about people and not in some abstract, the 30 districts of Rwanda, Cocagi is made up of over 1100
marketing jargon way. It is precisely what makes Rwandan members. Rwandan policy mandates cooperatives, and by
coffee so special and obtainable at all. “This is also all joining forces in this manner, Rwandan coffee farmers
handpicked so there’s no mechanical equipment, no me- experience tangible benefits. They receive major agricul-
chanical harvesting. All of the harvesting is done by human tural inputs and have more interest than working alone.
beings. And the second part to that is, on these lines, they What is more, they assist many Rwandan coffee farmers
were all female,” Trent notes in comparison to his visits to that Daniel says desperately want to grow more coffee, but
farms in Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam during his over 15 do not independently have the means to. Trent and Julia
years in coffee. It is also important to note that human experienced this same enthusiasm specifically when meet-
hands are not acting as some sort of stand-in for underde- ing with Cocagi members. Despite these women receiving
veloped technology. The role of Rwandan coffee farmers unideal land to grow on, they were resoundingly eager and
is, in fact, dictated by the hilly Rwandan landscape, which driven. “So they wanted to be empowered. We need land
demands coffee be grown on steep mountain sides. When that we can access; we want our own area; we want a seri-
the global coffee sector forsakes the human element, they ous business where we can control it, where we can get
squarely fail Rwanda’s key differentiator. In Rwanda, coffee good yields, where we can make this meaningful,” Trent
is not a product being grown, it is income, loans, education, recalled their ambitions. Listening to them, St Remio bought
health care, opportunity; it is life. land. They bought trees.
The Rwandan people are not being properly support-
ed, and not just monetarily. “One issue is the teaching,”
Daniel adds. While he can speak about the effects of climate
change, Daniel states—with the precision of an agrono-
mist—that this issue is one that affects all farmers, not just “If a farmer is well maintained, the
coffee growers. And, what he emphasizes once more is the
people, the human capital without which Rwandan coffee source of coffee is well maintained. If
is not possible. Consulting coffee growers on good agricul-
tural practices, providing indispensable training, and in- farmers have a good life, then whatev-
forming farmers about what they can do in the face of in-
creasingly intense climatic events, this is the kind of er comes from coffee will be attained.”
support that is invaluable and sorely lacking. “What can I

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