We purchased this coffee from our friend Ben at Sun Dog Coffee. We've worked with Ben over the last few years, sourcing microlots from Baho coffee, most of which have been the finest Rwandan coffees we've purchased from year to year. Aside from sourcing incredible coffees, Ben has also built an incredible bank of knowledge ranging from farm gate pricing to historical context, which you can find below.

FUGI STATION
Located in the Southern Province of Rwanda, Fugi is nestled between the Nyungwe National Forest and the border of Burundi. It’s quickly becoming a favorite of ours in the Baho network, producing consistently excellent washed and natural lots. Furthermore, it’s transformed into what Emmanuel has called Baho’s hub for innovation. Nearly 50% of Fugi’s production was alternatively (honey, natural, or experimental) processed during the past two seasons. Fugi has additionally served as homebase for numerous pilot projects - like the first women producer group, a parabolic drying structure, and a small composting facility producing organic fertilizers.

Fugi was built in 2013, but it was purchased by Emmanuel in 2016. Since then, he’s dedicated this station to solely producing specialty grade coffee. Fugi was Emmanuel’s very first station; and thus, it’s a key component of the foundation upon which Baho Coffee was built. It’s the third smallest station in the Baho collection, purchasing cherry from around 950 smallholder farmers and producing 900 bags of exportable specialty grade coffee each year.

As is standard practice for Baho-owned stations - training, inputs , and substantial contributions towards health insurance premiums are provided for all farmers delivering. Furthermore, each station has an agronomist on site that organizes training sessions focused on topics such as coffee plant care (planting, fertilizing, pruning, harvesting, etc), environmental protection, and importance of our traceability efforts. Various inputs like fertilizers and new coffee seedlings are provided free of cost to all farmers. Baho is involved a step further here as well - helping farmers with transportation to gather materials and lending tools/equipment when necessary.

WARAKOZE MUSAZA
Emmanuel presented to us (Sun Dog) a handful of lots in 2019 that were traced back to communities surrounding specific hills. This initiative immediately sparked our interest and kickstarted our discussions on how we could expand and deepen this type of traceability. As buyers, it’s always exciting to find more information about where coffee is coming from; but additionally, Emmanuel made it very clear that it was helpful to Baho and their producer network as well. It created the opportunity to directly support producers and hopefully motivate them to continue in specialty.

Meaning thank you old man in Kinyarwanda, Warakoze Musaza, is one of Baho’s three core lot separations. To further clarify, old man is technically the direct English translation, but Musaza carries a very strong sense of honor and respect. In this same spirit, the idea of the producer group is to honor an elder generation of coffee growers. These are all producers who’ve been growing coffee their entire lives, through which they’ve seen both the coffee sector and Rwanda as a whole drastically change. It’s a small nod and thank you for their continued commitment to coffee growing and a way in which to honor their lifelong work through a more contemporary lens of increased traceability and higher prices for their coffees.

Emmanuel shares:
Warakoze Umusaza is a group of very old farmers, who have been growing coffee for more than 40 years. The group was formed with an aim to motivate them as well as helping each other through sharing ideas and seeking support. Baho coffee provide them all possible support, and we are with them 5 years. Babo has a plan to continue to help them take care of their coffee, paying them for health care and give them a good second payment. Fugi warakoze musaza farmers are trained on the most proficient method to focus on their coffee and how to deal with the climate and biodiversity. They are given medical coverage and are assisted with getting credits from Banks. Additionally, they are given natural and inorganic fertilizers. They are assisted with getting unreservedly the coffee seedlings to supplant old coffee trees