Gatsibo Lot #D Natural
غاتسيبو #D
Sourced from smallholder farmers in the Gatsibo District of Rwanda’s Eastern Province, this coffee represents the dedication and innovation driving Rwanda’s specialty sector forward. Grown at elevations between 1,600 and 1,800 meters, cherries are hand-harvested and delivered to Rwanda Trading Company’s Gatsibo station, where they undergo meticulous natural processing.
The coffee is sun-dried on raised beds, allowing the fruit to impart depth and complexity before being hulled and prepared for export at RTC’s Kigali facility. This lot exemplifies RTC’s commitment to traceable, farmer-centered supply chains that combine traditional cultivation with modern quality control, producing coffees that express both regional character and processing precision.
Rwanda is blessed with ideal coffee growing conditions that include high altitude, regular rainfall, volcanic soils with good organic structure and an abundance of Bourbon. The vast majority of Rwandan coffee is produced by smallholders of which there are thought to be around half a million with parcels of land often not much larger than just one hectare per family. Coffee is grown in most parts the country, with particularly large concentrations along Lake Kivu and in the southern province. Rwandan smallholders organise themselves into cooperatives and share the services of centralised wet-mills – or washing stations as they are known locally.Flowering takes place between September and October and the harvest runs from March to July, with shipments starting in August through December.
