Recent years: independence and coffee beer
Beginning in 2003, PEARL deemed the operation self-sufficient and reduced financial support for the Abahuzamugambi Cooperative. The cooperative provided its growers with loans that helped improve living standards and allowed for livestock investments, affordable medical insurance, and education. A cooperative bank was opened in the village in March, enabling farmers to maintain and manage their own funds locally, rather than having to trek the long distance to Butare.
In late 2004, London-based Meantime Brewing began offering a coffee beer made out of beans grown in Maraba.The drink is intended as an alcoholic iced cappucino or digestif. The head brewer tasted coffees from around the world but decided that the hints of vanilla and chocolate in Maraba coffee made it more suitable than the nutty and bitter coffees from South America. The original beer had an alcohol content of 4% and the same caffeine content as coffee, and was described as having a "silky, velvety character". It is sold in larger branches of Sainsbury's and in some pubs and clubs. The beverage was one of only two Fairtrade beers available on the UK market until 2006,when a reduction in the proportion of coffee and an increased alcohol content (now 6%) cost it its Fairtrade status. It is still made from Maraba beans. It is the only coffee beer available in the British Isles,and it won the Gold medal for the coffee-flavoured beer category at the 2006 Beer World Cup.
In 2006, the Swedish Minister for Development Co-operation and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carin Jamtin, visited Maraba to extend cooperation between Sweden and Rwanda and expose Maraba coffee to the Swedish specialty market.In July 2006, a telecentre was opened in Maraba under the coordination of PEARL. USAID, NUR and Washington State University (WSU) Extension's Center to Bridge the Digital Divide (CBDD) provided funding and resources. Three WSU students spent six weeks in Rwanda helping to set up the centre and train the local staff, who now operate it.
