Elephantstrunk

Rwanda’s economy is expanding quickly. And coffee exports are helping fuel it.

Since 1995, the country has often achieved 7 percent annual growth. This year, coffee surpassed tea as the country’s biggest export, bringing growing prosperity to the country’s 500,000 coffee farmers. One group of 20,000 farmers saw revenues of about $800,000 last year, says Dr. Schilling, a Texas A&M professor, who runs a US-funded initiative called the Partnership to Enhance Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL). It helps connect Rwandan farmers with high-end overseas buyers. This year’s harvest was better than last year’s, so the 12 cooperatives expect about $2 million in revenues. Roughly 85 percent of profits go to the farmers, whose average coffee-related annual incomes have jumped to $400 in 2006, up from $75 in 2001 , Schilling says.

That’s the kind of difference Fairtrade can make. The rest of the story is harrowing. Worryingly the only part I can really understand is the killer’s class resentment. It doesn’t look like the faultline in Rwanda has gone away.