Gatare has a long reputation having been among the first stations to process very high quality coffee for export. Located in Nyamasheke district of the Western province, the station is surrounded by hills covered by coffee trees. Gatare has competed in the Cup Of Excellence competition many times, and always ended in the high winning lots. The station has a very large capacity disc pulper, washing channels, dry fermentation tanks, and multiple soaking tanks. Station manager Fred has been the manager of the site since RTC took ownership in 2016. Although just a small 2 ha site, the station services 1096 local farmers who contributed 1000 tons of cherry in 2017. The station employs 7 full time staff with an additional 90 during the season. 80% are women. Farm sizes in the are very small with an average size of just 1 ha. Some may only have 10 coffee trees amongst other crops. Nonetheless, all farmers currently contributing to Gatare’s lots are trained by RTC on how to get the best yield quality from their trees. Fred told me that he loves working in coffee because of how it increases his knowledge, and for him, more knowledge is the key for more opportunities.