On 14^th May 2020, Rwanda’s Ambassador to China, His Excellency James Kimonyo joined a live steaming event organized by Alibaba Group to market Rwandan Coffee.

The event was a special edition of “National Treasure,” a monthly livestream program produced by Tmall Global to introduce quality products from around the world to Chinese audiences. This event was organized as part of the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) partnership signed between the Government of Rwanda and Alibaba Group in 2018. The eWTP is enabling cross-border trade of Rwandan products to Chinese consumers, facilitating tourism to Rwanda, and providing capacity building to empower the growth of Rwanda’s digital economy.

Among the brands featured in this special edition of “National Treasure” was Gorilla's Coffee from Rwanda. During its livestreaming session, the brand sold out its stock of 3,000 bags of coffee in just one second.

Speaking during the event, Ambassador James Kimonyo thanked the Government of the People's Republic of China for the existing good cooperation with Rwanda in e-commerce, and Alibaba Group in particular for the eWTP partnership which has so far produced good results, especially in the coffee sector where Rwandan farmers are able to sell value added products without going through middlemen, thus making more profits. He added that because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the world needs e-commerce more than ever before and Rwanda looks forward to continued partnership with Alibaba Group.

Mr. Eric Jing, Alibaba Group Director and Executive Chairman of Ant Group, who joined the stream to rally support for brands like Gorilla's Coffee, said that Alibaba Group wants to support SMEs worldwide to recover from the outbreak, resume production and secure orders in their times of need with digital technologies. “Through today's livestream, we look forward to reopening global trade, starting with helping businesses reopen”, Mr. Jing added.

This was not the first time the eWTP activated resources across Alibaba's ecosystem to support farmers and small businesses in Rwanda. In January, eWTP worked with Freshippo to launch a new Volcanic Hunter hot sauce product made from chilies purchased in bulk from Rwandan farmers. Freshippo refined the sauce's flavor to cater to the tastes of Chinese consumers and rolled out a branding campaign to promote Rwandan chili.

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