Gilbert Gatali, founder of Roots Origin and owner of the Intango washing station overlooking Lake Kivu, collaborates with 350 coffee farmers to improve their livelihoods. At the heart of Intango’s mission is offering premium prices for high-quality cherries, ensuring complete traceability from cherry to cup while creating meaningful value for farmers.
Over the past six years, This Side Up’s partnership with Intango has been built on trust and a shared commitment to farmers’ well-being. The washing station doesn’t just trade coffee—it invests in the future of its farmers. With agronomist Norbert leading training and technical assistance, farmers are empowered to improve coffee quality, increase production volumes, and adopt sustainable practices that ensure long-term success.
Gilbert and his team have been purposeful in shaping their impact, ensuring every decision aligns with the needs and aspirations of the community they serve. Their approach isn’t about imposing growth targets but about empowering farmers to decide how and at what pace they want to grow.
Looking ahead, Intango is doubling down on its farmer-led vision, proving that equality and partnership are natural outcomes when businesses genuinely listen and support farmers in achieving their dreams.
“ Impact is the ability to create a positive change in an individual's life/community and ecosystem. It begins with changing things for yourself. To make impact is to understand what the “impact-ee” needs and cater to it.”
- GILBERT GATALI
CREATING MARKET ACCESS
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Achievements so far: Farmers got paid well above the Government minimum of 410 RWF (until last season) which allowed them to cover their costs, send their children to school and invest in their farms.
2025 update: The Rwandan government has increased the minimum cherry prices from 410 to 600 RWF favoring the farmers.
What the future holds: Growing at the pace that is comfortable for farmers in terms of productivity and taking the time to adapt the good agricultural practices. Supplying consistent quality to the existing buyers. Focusing on helping farmers improve productivity through training, awareness. Diversifying and experimenting with different processes whenever possible.
EMPOWERING FARMERS WITH DISABILITIES
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Achievements so far : First harvest of this group will happen this season in 2025!
What the future holds: Finding a market for this coffee that will be interested to invest in them on a long term.
TRAINING FARMERS IN GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
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Achievements so far : Regular trainings to deepen the farmer’s understanding of good agricultural practices. Atleast 10-20 farmers now cultivate coffee within an agroforestry system.
2025 Updates : They want to inspire at least 40 farmers across these 9 farmer groups to start planting shade trees between their coffee to increase cover crops.
What does the future hold : Raising awareness to adopt a more regenerative way of production and training farmers to stick with it. Working with the farmers to understand what kind of ecological investments would be beneficial for the entire group and using the regenerative premium from This Side Up to partially fund it.
