About 1.5 tonnes of roasted Rwandan coffee beans were sold within a minute on Thursday during an online live streaming event aimed at promoting Rwandan coffee in the Asian country.

Organised by the Alibaba group, the online event aimed at promoting Rwandan coffee which is available on the Chinese e-commerce market, thanks to the eWTP (Electronic World Trade Platform).

Rwanda and the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2018 signed an agreement that opened doors for small businesses in Africa to take part in the cross-border electronic trade by availing their products to the Chinese market through the eWTP platform.

As a result of the agreement, Rwandan coffee is available on Alibaba’s platforms and coffee lovers in China can access the product through Tmall, a subsidiary online platform of Alibaba.

Thursday’s event featured coffee from Gorilla Coffee - a brand from Rwanda Coffee Company, promoted to about 20 million fans that were following online.

By the time of buying, up to 3000 pieces (about 1.5 tonnes) of the coffee were bought online in a space of about 1 minute.

This is the second time for such an event to be organised by the Rwandan embassy in China. Earlier this year, in a similar event held in Hangzhou City, up to 2,000 packets of Rwandan coffee were sold in about 10 minutes.

In an interview with The New Times, James Kimonyo, the ambassador of Rwanda to China reflected on the online sell of Rwandan coffee in China

"It is something that is very important. It removes middlemen between the Rwandan farmers and Chinese consumers. This increases the prices (for the farmer) naturally. That has made our farmers earn 4 dollars more. Before they were selling a piece for 8 dollars, now after joining the eWTP, the price went up to 12 dollars,” he said.

David Ngarambe, the CEO of Rwanda Coffee Company, said that such live streaming assists them in creating brand awareness, and make sales.

Wang Jiaxin, the Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Chinese embassy, in Rwanda told The New Times that Rwandan coffee has become more and more popular in China, and some branded coffee chains have it, for instance, Starbucks.

He added that well-developed e-commerce is greatly contributing to the increasing popularity of Rwandan coffee in the Asian country.

"China is leading in terms of e-commerce throughout the world. The unit price of Rwandan coffee in China is 30-40% higher than sold to the traditional American and European markets. So it is a more profitable market for Rwandan growers and merchants,” he said.