Rwanda Aims for 26,000-Ton Coffee Harvest on Favorable Weather

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) — Rwanda aims to achieve its coffee output forecast of 26,000 metric tons this season following “positive results” with most of the crop harvested, said Alex Kanyankole, managing director of the Rwanda Coffee Development Authority.    Field reports indicate that the harvest, which started in April, “has yielded a better crop,” Kanyankole said today by phone from the capital, Kigali. “We are optimistic that we shall achieve our target,” he said.    The projection is 8.3 percent higher than the 24,000 tons the country produced last year because of more rain, Kanyankole said. It’s lower than an initial projection of 27,000 tons, which was revised after earlier field reports, he added.

The central-east African nation produces the arabica variety of coffee beans. Rwanda plans to boost coffee production to 40,000 tons a year by 2011 through wider planting and improved farming techniques, Kanyankole said in an earlier interview.