Kinini
Kinini was only started in 2017, but has already been producing excellent results. Started by Jacquie Turner and Malcolm Clear, they aim to provide opportunities to farmers in the region, through support in agriculture and access to market. Jacquie and Malcolm have worked with development in Rwanda for many years, initially founding a school for orphans of the country’s brutal genocide, before finding this opportunity in coffee.
Early in the 2000’s, the Rwandan government was helping to fund coffee projects, seeing it as a key method of rural development as Rwanda rebuilt. Jacquie and Malcolm applied for some of these funds to help start the Kinini coop in the Rulindo district, just an hour north of Rwanda’s capital Kigali. Despite the incredible high altitude here, the fertile land, and the proximity to the city, coffee had never been farmed here before. Kinini financed the planting of coffee trees on each smallholder’s lands, and promised to buy the cherries once they reached maturity.
The incredible work that took place from the initial planting, through targeted agronomic support, and careful processing at the Kinini wet mill, means that quality has been carefully controlled from the very start of the project.
After their first main harvest in 2017, the potential of the project was clear, and has only improved in intervening years. In this lot, composed of cherries collected in the villages of Tumba and Mageragere, this translates to crisp and bright citrus, and ripe red berries in the cup.
