The SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER reported on February 28, 2006 that Starbucks Corp. announced that it will soon start selling its first Rwandan-grown coffee in North American stores.

Starbucks, the world's largest specialty coffee retailer, said it decided to start buying beans from Rwanda after visiting it in 2004 to gauge its potential as a premium coffee supplier.  Rwanda Blue Bourbon is the company's 10th variety in the Black Apron Exclusives line of high-end coffees produced in limited quantities. 

In its last visit to Rwanda, Starbucks picked two mills to work with, both of them in Cyangugu, a province in the southeastern part of the country along the border with the Republic of Congo and Burundi.  Both mills produce coffee grown at high altitudes - as high as 5,500 feet - in soil rich with volcanic ash. Some of it offers black tea-like and black currant flavors, some has a citrusy, chocolaty taste, said Dub Hays, Starbucks' senior vice president of coffee.

Starbucks said small farmers who have about 175 trees per farm grow the coffee it’s buying, and that it expects the higher prices they'll get will prove to be a boon to the nation's economy.  "They're realizing if you produce quality, people are going to pay for it," Hays said.  Hays would not disclose how much Rwandan farmers were paid for their Starbucks beans, but said the company pays a global average of $1.28 per pound to its producers, and follows green coffee purchasing guidelines that reward performance in several environmental and social categories.