GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, May 22th, 2019 – Sucafina is pleased to announce today the extension of its partnership with Nestlé for the next three years focusing particularly on the social-economic inclusion of women and youth in Rwanda.
Nestlé and Sucafina joined forces in 2015 to run a program called ‘’Coffee by women’’ under the Nescafé Plan. The program aims at improving the livelihoods and resilience of small-scale coffee producers across Rwanda while ensuring long term sourcing of high-quality coffee. So far, the program has reached 5,053 coffee farmers with 37% comprising of women and 24%, youth. For this second phase, Nestlé and Sucafina will target 3,057 women to be included in the ‘’coffee by women’’ program in Rwanda by 2021.
Max Veglio, Managing Director for Rwacof Exports Ltd, Sucafina’s subsidiary in Rwanda, said “At Sucafina, we operate at every level of the worldwide coffee supply chain. We have been processing and exporting coffee in Rwanda since 1996 and have amassed extensive knowledge of the internal and export markets with a worldwide network of buyers. This second phase of the Nescafé Plan – Coffee by women, follows on the successes of our first phase in the region. This collaboration will have a special emphasis on the inclusion of women and youth which was particularly successful in the initial phase”
The Program – co-funded jointly by Nestlé and Sucafina SA, will be implemented by Kahawatu Foundation. As part of the program, farmers will receive, continuous training and technical support and will be certified to a validated international sustainability standard.
For more information, read Nestlé's press release in this regard.