The Village

Currently, The Village features coffee from the Ejo Heza women’s cooperative in Rwanda’s Western Province. The women of Ejo Heza are part of a larger cooperative called Kopakama, which was founded in 1998 following the Rwandan genocide. Kopakama was built around the goal of bringing people together for a common good: rebuilding, creating opportunity, and supporting a healthier coffee industry.

That mission led Kopakama to create Ejo Heza in 2011 as a dedicated group for women in the community. Since then, Ejo Heza has helped Kopakama become a leader in social and gender equity. In 2016, the group founded a microcredit savings and lending program to help member farmers continue building stability and opportunity for themselves, their farms, and their families.

Every year, Ruth Ann Church, founder of Artisan Coffee Imports, meets with members of Ejo Heza to better understand the impact of the premiums they receive for these micro-lots and how the group is sharing those benefits. These ongoing conversations help give important context to the coffee, from pricing and harvest expectations to the real challenges producers are navigating each year.

There is nuance and complexity in this work. In Rwanda, national farmgate pricing helps set a minimum price for coffee cherry, but higher prices do not always translate as simply as more money in producers’ pockets. Currency shifts, inflation, access to financing, and competition between cooperatives and larger buyers all play a role in what producers experience on the ground.

The benefit of working with the same trusted suppliers year after year is that we gain the opportunity to better understand this complexity. Through partners like Artisan Coffee Imports, we learn more about the challenges and successes producers face as the landscape changes. That context helps us become better coffee buyers, better partners, and better stewards of the relationships behind the coffee.

Artisan has also continued its commitment to supporting women entering the coffee industry in Rwanda. Jobs in coffee communities are often low paying, with limited opportunity for advancement, especially for women. At the same time, cooperatives often need university-trained talent to help lead them through the challenges of the coffee industry today.

To support the growth of opportunities for women in coffee, while also helping close this talent gap in cooperative management, Artisan Coffee Imports developed a Talent Partnership with producing cooperatives. The program is now in its third cycle and currently supports Angelique Mutuyimana, who is working with the Co-operative des Caféiculteurs de Gishoma in southern Rwanda.

The internship model is tri-funded, meaning each party contributes to make the program possible. Artisan funds transportation and living expenses while the intern works with the cooperative. The cooperative provides supervision and meaningful work experience through a formal agreement with Artisan. The intern invests time and talent into the opportunity.

The impact of this program can already be seen. Grace Izerwe, who interned with Kopakama from 2020 to 2021, now serves as Kopakama’s Chief of Production and Dry Mill Manager. Her leadership continues to benefit the cooperative, the women of Ejo Heza, and roaster partners like Joe Coffee.

For us at Joe, The Village is an opportunity to both share what we learn and stay open to being educated by the people closest to the work. Strong sourcing partners help provide the context needed to understand what sustainability means for all parties in the supply stream. Open communication keeps us accountable to each other and to the future of coffee.

Because of Artisan Coffee Imports’ commitment to transparency, thoughtful context, and active partnership, we are proud to continue working with them for many years to come.