GAP and GHP are the better tools for competing to the international market and for fulfilling the production standard’s requirement .Rwanda Government has identified Tourism Sector as a priority sector to facilitate the achievement of the country’s development goals. Rwanda’s current Sustainable Tourism Master Plan recommends the formation of business linkages across the supply chains, especially for agricultural produce and handicrafts from the rural sector, in order to spread the benefits of tourism more widely. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy particularly in the rural areas where incomes and employment are mainly dependent on the sector . The aim of this study was to assess the potential contribution of the Coffee Based Tourism on the Rwandan coffee sector. The second part shat the possible contribution of coffee based tourism on the coffee sector,the last section discusses different factors that may affect the success of this new tourism product. Coffee plays a major role in the Rwandan economy. It contributes significantly to foreign exchange earnings and to the monetization of the rural economy.However, mobile vertical rack the Rwandan coffee is less than 1% of the world market and it has no influence on futures prices.
Rwanda coffee price is depending on New York coffee market, and the increase or decrease of the New York coffee market directly affect to the Rwanda coffee price . Taking only into account quality and volume, Rwanda has little competitive advantage compared to the other specialty coffee producing countries in East Arica, where its competitive advantage is very much related to its “storytelling” capacity, its pricing, its Coffee Washing Station infrastructure, and the ease of traveling and doing business.Many researchers have demonstrated how the Rwandan tourism products should be diversified and recommended that coffee should be regarded as tourism product add-on. However,only one research on coffee based tourism was conducted by Anbalagan & Lovelock.This study identified the possible contribution of coffee based tourism to the Rwanda Development. The study was published in 2014, eight years ago, yet the recommended coffee based tourism is not yet developed and marketed along other new tourism products the Rwandan government is selling. The aim of this study is to extend the study of Anbalagan & Lovelock by analyzing the potential contributions of coffee based tourism to the coffee sector in Rwanda,focusing on Nyamasheke district. This district is number one in producing more coffee in Rwanda according to .
This study was guided by the following objectives; to assess the potential contribution of Coffee based tourism to the coffee sector in Nyamasheke district; and to identify factors that may promote or hinder the coffee based tourism development in the case studied. According to the last coffee census of 2015, in Rwanda there are 355,771 coffee growers, with 89,726,809 of total coffee trees vertical grow rack that covered the area of 35,891 ha.In Rwanda also, there are 245 coffee washing station with the processing capacity of 104,600 tons of coffee cherries per season . The National Strategic for Transformation has shown that the percentage of fully washed coffee is targeted at 80% of total production by 2024, while the productivity per tree should by that time have increased to 4 kg .Coffee production in Rwanda was introduced in 1904 by German missionaries.
Since the early 1950s, it has gradually undergone substantial development resulting from proper farm management. Owing to Rwandan soil characteristics,which are suitable for coffee production, coffee plantations are found in all four provinces of the country. Arabica coffee occupies approximately 95% of the country’s total coffee plantations and is mostly planted at higher altitudes in the Southern,Northern, and Western Provinces of Rwanda. Robusta coffee comprises the remaining 5% and is planted at lower altitudes below 1400 m in the Eastern Province. Despite its significant contribution in the Rwandan economy, the coffee production sector is facing a number of challenges, mainly low productivity. Coffee yields in most of the East African counties lag behind Latin-America and Asia.In Rwanda, the average annual coffee yields varied between 1.5 and 2 tons per ha from 2012 to 2016. In contrast, in the same period, the average annual coffee yields were around 8 tons per ha in Colombia, Venezuela, and Indonesia.