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Wooden Bike Coffee

The 'Coffee Bike' has been designed to help increase productivity of farmers in Rwanda, and the scheme set up around it helps fund their provision. The country has nearly 500,000 small-holder coffee producers who possess an average of 200 coffee trees each. Each small plantation is managed like a small garden and is the principal generator of cash for rural Rwanda. To date, many of the farmers use home made wooden bicycles to transport their loads, but these can be very heavy and are rarely an efficient tool for their business.

If the transport time of cherries coming from the coffee field to the washing station was reduced from six to 12 hours down to two to four, research has shown that cup quality will increase significantly from 82/100 to 86/100 on sensory evaluation scores from which coffee price is determined. This translates into a $0.15 or higher premium per pound of green coffee sold.To help solve Rwanda Coffee Farmers' transportation problems, the Coffee Bike Project aims to make specially designed load-bearing bikes available to farmers for a reasonable price on credit and where quality premiums would cover the bike’s cost.

Useful References
www.woodenbikecoffee.com