About – Simbi Coffee Investment

The Simbi Coffee washing station is located in the Huye district of Rwanda’s southern province and services 1,000 smallholder coffee farmers who all grow high quality Arabica red bourbon coffee.

Simbi is a privately owned washing station operated by Abdul Rudahunga, who was inspired to get into the coffee business by his grandmother. She was also a coffee farmer and one of the few rural Rwandans that roasted and enjoyed her own coffee as part of her daily routine.

In Simbi’s first year of operation, a sample was submitted for The Cup of Excellence competition and achieved 9th place, an incredible achievement given its newcomer status. Such an accolade has inspired its owners to focus on maintaining high quality while increasing production.

The washing station was established as recently as 2013 with the construction of a 300 metric ton per season cherry processing facility, and a 2.8 tons per hour pulping machine. Following the pulping of freshly delivered cherry, the coffee is wet fermented and then the beans are sorted by density using water filled grading channels. The wet parchment is dried under cover for 24 hours before being moved to uncovered drying beds for an average of 15 days. During that period the coffee is continually hand sorted by an army of brightly clothed women who are meticulous in their removal of defect beans.

Coffee Growing in Rwanda :

Despite the tragedies of genocide and civil war which shook the world in 1994, Rwanda is an incredibly beautiful and culturally rich nation which also produces exceptionally good coffee. In Rwanda coffee has brought hope for a better future since those dark days and the country is now rightly heralded as a top producer of fine specialty coffee.

We offer One of the Best Coffee!

Simbi Coffee Washing Station was built in 2011 and 2012, the season of 2013 was the first for this investor in the region. That season, Simbi CWS employs an average of 85 people over a period of three months, out of them around 80% are women.

In the first season of working, in Rwanda Cup of Excellence 2013, our produced coffee came 9^th with a score of 86.78 % in 159 samples after three selections with national and international cuppers, In the COE 2015, Simbi coffee come to 7^th place with 88.89 %. The COE of 2018, Simbi Coffee come to 17^th place with 87.62 in 28 winning lots from 150 lots selected national wide.

The cherries are well handpicked, washed, well sorted after fermentation step, fully sun dried on dry tables and hand sorted to ensure only the best coffee beans are processed.

Simbi uses the wet fermentation method, and density sorting using grading channels and water. They then transport the wet parchment for 24 hours of covered drying before moving the parchment to uncovered drying beds for an average of 15 days. In Simbi’s first year of operation it placed 9th in the Rwanda Cup of Excellence competition, and has since focused on maintaining the quality while increasing the production.