Getting ready to write about Costco's second-quarter profit today -- down 27 percent -- I remembered hearing about a coffee tip that CEO Jim Sinegal gave Starbucks years ago.

Issaquah-based Costco buys some of its own coffee for its Kirkland Signature brand, in addition to what it buys from Starbucks.

Turns out Sinegal introduced Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to the president of Rwanda, where Costco was buying some coffee.

"Jim introduced me to Paul Kagame, whom he had met, regarding whether or not Rwandan coffee -- the quality of it -- could be consistent with what Starbucks might need," Schultz recently confirmed. "So we went to Rwanda and began to work with the government and the coffee industry that was literally coming out of the ground post the genocide."

The relationship flourished, and Starbucks is now opening a coffee-farmer support center in Rwanda.

Kagame has spent the night at Schultz's home, and he spoke at Starbucks' 2007 shareholders meeting, saying how well the coffee company treats coffee farmers and how much he'd like to have a Starbucks shop in Rwanda.

Schultz said that on his last trip to Rwanda, some 10,000 people greeted him at one village to thank Starbucks for changing their lives.

"This is a great example of.... not having government interfering, but having government as a catalyst and as a friend, and all that money going to hands of people who need it the most," Schultz said.

Kagame deserves the credit, he said, for working with companies like Starbucks to help Rwandans.

Indeed, Kagame is known for courting Western businessmen to help pull Rwanda out of poverty, as mentioned in this article by The Economist. Sometimes those partnerships end in disappointment, The Economist said in another piece.