AGRIBUSINESS: World Coffee Producers Forum Coming to Rwanda in 2023

After two years of online gatherings, the World Coffee Producers Forum (WCPF) is returning to an in-person format for 2023, with the event scheduled for Feb. 13-14 at the Kigali Convention Center in Kigali, Rwanda.

This will be the third in-person iteration of the event, which is focused on critical issues affecting coffee producers, such as sustainability, climate change, environment and prosperity.

« The dialogue continues evolving towards the need of a more comprehensive approach beyond the issue of prices, » the WCPF, which was established as a nonprofit entity in 2018, said in a preview of the Rwanda event. « It is necessary for the whole value chain to work together to create the necessary conditions or structure for farmers’ prosperity, because currently, these conditions are not enough for producers to achieve a living income. »

The Rwanda event will follow the inaugural in-person WCPF in Medellín, Colombia, in 2017, which featured former United States President Bill Clinton and renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs. The second, equally high-profile WCPF took place in Campinas, Brazil, in 2019.

• The current roster of speakers for the event in Kigali includes:
• Juan Esteban Orduz, WCPF Chairperson
• Jeffrey Sachs, Economist and Author
• Claude Bizimana, CEO of the National Agricultural Export Development Board
  NAEB of Rwanda
• Gerardine Mukeshimana, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources of Rwanda
• Roberto Vélez Vallejo, CEO of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC)
• Jamie Coats, CEO of Wise Responder and Co-Founder of SOPHIA Oxford
• Vanusia Nogueira, Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization