Little coffee-graders, Ruanda Petites trieuses de caf, Ruanda

At the beginning of the century, planters in the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi found difficulty in cultivating coffee, largely due to ravages caused by insects. By the 1950s, however, some 280 factories were treating crops of both Arabica and the native Robusta, for domestic consumption and exportation. Coffee shrubs were also found on much smaller African plantations, as well growing in their wild state.