Baho Coffee owns and runs 10 washing stations across Rwanda, located in different coffee-growing regions with different quality potentials, and two others in Burundi. The company, which sells small-holder farmers’ coffee to clients around the world, has more than 100,000 members, including producers. It also partners with farmers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help them to understand and implement the best practices of coffee processing methods.

Founder Rusatira Emmanuel studied agricultural engineering, rural development and agribusiness studies in university. Upon graduation, he spent 12 years working at a multinational coffee exporter in Rwanda that has operations across the globe. He established Baho in 2017, driven by the passion to empower small-scale farmers in Rwanda who are marginalized despite producing delicious coffee.

When Emmanuel says he wants to be a partner for coffee farmers 365 days a year, that’s not some pleasant-sounding catchphrase. He means every word of it, as evidenced by Baho’s various programs aimed at building closer relationships with farmers. For Baho, coffee producers are at the foundation of the business. One such program seeks to help farmers to improve their production techniques. Employees well-versed in agricultural engineering make regular visits to farmers and suggest better cultivation methods. Baho organizes its partner producers into small groups and appoints a leader in each. Leaders are tasked with identifying challenges faced by farmers in their group and report the issues to agricultural engineers. Baho aims to improve overall quality by finding solutions together with farmers.