Origin Profile: Burundi

Burundi is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. The official languages are Kirundi and French, with pockets of Swahili (mostly in Bujumbura along Lake Tanganyika). Hilly and mountainous, Burundi boasts ideal agroecology for coffee cultivation. The country’s economy is predominantly agricultural with more than 90% of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends very heavily on coffee and tea exports, which together account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings.

Coffee is Burundi’s biggest export revenue earner, making up as high as 80% of earnings. There are 600 000 families, close to 40% of the population, involved in the coffee subsector. Since 2007, the coffee subsector was controlled by the state, with the result that all facilities (i.e. washing stations and dry mills) and exporting were coordinated by the government. Coffee has historically been of low quality, subsequently receiving low prices dependent on commodities exchange markets. However, in 2006, the government started liberalizing the subsector and began allowing privatization of coffee washing stations (CWS) and dry mills.

In 2007 USAID started funding a five-year program – Burundi Agribusiness Program – aimed at reforming the horticulture, dairy and coffee subsectors. Within the coffee subsector, part of BAP’s mandate is to expand grower access into high quality specialty markets.

Burundi Agribusiness Program

BAP’s purpose is to encourage, “Activities focus[ing] on strengthening trade knowledge and the skills of producers and processors. Technical guidance and material support are being provided to enable producer organizations… To enhance product competitiveness, producers and entrepreneurs are provided with the opportunity to increase their knowledge of market standards”.

In practice this means a lot of things. BAP programs focus on everything from agricultural best practice, to obtaining certifications, to coordinating the Cup of Excellence (COE) program, to marketing and promotions. Amongst some of the more relevant and interesting programs to coffee quality are: pest management, fertilization, nursery production, plantation maintenance, composting, processing techniques and cupping training.

These programs, particularly the agricultural best practice ones, have been methodically implemented, assessed and tested. For example, control and treatment plots within individual farms with different types of compost: organic (manure, coffee pulp, and food waste from other crops) vs. chemical fertilizers. Farmers who piloted organic compost fertilization have noticed visibly greener, healthier looking, more robust plants. For cupper training, seven trainer cuppers have obtained Q-Grade certification and received consultation from Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE)/Cup of Excellence (COE) prior to the 2011 Prestige Cup; precursor to the first Cup of Excellence in Burundi, hosted in 2012.

Coffee professionals within Burundi are beginning to understand the link between being able to identify quality through cupping with receiving direct trade sales from buyers of high quality specialty coffee. Though the Burundian cuppers base is currently small, there is growing support for cupping training programs.

Prior to the start of BAP, nation-wide infrastructure assessment, pilot projects and planning reports were compiled to ensure the coffee sub-sector's reformation was as targeted and efficient as possible. Based on these initial assessments, three regions/SOGESTALs were identified as already producing the best quality coffee and have the best infrastructure already in place. These regions are Kayanza, Ngozi and Kirundo-Muyinga. Together with coffee buyers, the former government-run Office du Café de Burundi/Coffee Board (OCIBU) decided to focus on these SOGESTALs for pilot projects aimed at determining how to best target BAP activities. Kayanza, Ngozi and Kirundo-Muyinga were chosen as “model” regions based on the following 16 criteria, with elevation, water quality, and distance to a paved road as the most heavily weighted criteria:

• elevation of CWS
• number of producers
• annual production (5 year average)
• water system (gravity fed or pump)
• source of water (spring or river)
• system for controlling waste water (drainage or recycled)
• percent of production from Arabica varieties
• flotation tanks (presence and number)
• warehouse facilities at CWS
• condition of depulpers and other mechanical equipment
• condition of tanks and channels
• average distance travelled by producers (km)
• distance to one of the smaller dry mills
• distance from paved road
• quality of management
• SOGESTAL’s overall assessment of coffee quality based on cupping competitions and other.

Burundi Agribusiness Program’s Coffee Team 

Emile Kamwenubusa – Coffee Value Chain Manager

As value chain manager, Emile oversees improvement in production, productivity and quality from grower to exporter. He works with coffee actors at all levels with the overarching aim of linking quality in the field to quality in the cup. In addition, Emile works with growers, cooperatives and certification bodies to obtain certification and also helps develop new grower cooperatives.

Tharcisse Niyungeko – Coffee Quality Specialist

In his position as quality specialist, Tharcisse is BAP’s expert in all things cupping and best practice during harvest season. He works with growers on ensuring ripe cherry selection and consults during the processing stages. As a cupping specialist, Tharcisse organizes and runs cupping programs for growers, dry and wet mill technicians and students pursuing a career in coffee.

Lyse Ndabambalire – Coffee Promotion and Marketing Specialist

When travelling to Burundi, you will almost certainly have met or will meet Lyse. She organizes buying trips and national/international coffee events and is representative for Burundian coffee at international exhibits and events. Lyse is the woman linking Burundian coffee professionals with international buyers. She also oversees media and promotions of Burundi’s specialty coffee industry.

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Le Carnaval du Café

We are excited and proud to announce that Emile will be joining us in Paris for Le Carnaval du Café! Emile will bring his experience and Burundi's unique perspective on how coffee quality is related to varietal and processing. His additions to Le Carnaval's programme will ensure richer dialogue and more vibrant discussions and debate and we now have the opportunity to compare not two, but three origin countries' contributions to the coffee craft. For more details and to reserve a coveted spot to the first-of-its-kind event, visit Le Carnaval's website here.

Honestly! Why Paris?

With all due respect, as much as Paris is the food capital of the world, it used to be a joke to even think of Paris as a coffee destination. Well that was until just a few months ago.

For two days we want to make Paris the Coffee Capital. And as a matter of fact, things are changing quickly – and Paris IS on its way to becoming a coffee destination too and that is why we want to be here now.

We are in Europe after all. And Paris is at the center of it. Geograpichally it’s obvious. It’s Convenient. Its Beautiful.

CUTTING EDGE(S)

Lets start with talking about the fringes.

Any movement usually starts as a marginal thing. Even in marginal places. Just like Seattle once was the specialty coffee hub (deserved or not) it is at least geographically not at the center of the US market. And as we know, the cutting edge coffee places were not seen in NYC until recent years.  Japan´s most influential Coffee company is in a mountain hill town, Kentaro Maruyama moved into Tokyo last week. Scandinavia is an outpost on this continent, but in specialty coffee it has become a destination.

THE EVENT. THE IDEA. PARIS 2012

For one weekend we want to share. We want to facilitate. We want to participate.

The ambition is to build a community. Many eager and competent coffee roasters around the continent have received coffees through the Collaborative. On behalf of the coffee farmers we are proud to say that we have found good homes for their lots. Now that the coffees are ”out there” we want to ask for samples of it back that we can cup together.

We are gathering a bunch of roasters – you – from all over Europe, to get together as proud craftsmen and women. We’ll talk about our craft and proudly share the coffees that we have roasted with such skill and care.  Sourced by The Collaborative, roasted by you, all together on the same table. We are organizing a cupping where you’ll get the rare opportunity to compare you roast style with other ambitious roasters and craftsmen and women of Europe.  Not for competition, but for cultural interaction and education. Other professional coffee cuppers and Baristas from all over the continent (and further) have signed up to come as well. Thus this is a unique chance to get a truly interesting feedback and discussions on the regional, company or personal culinary craft of roasting coffee. (even coffee from same farm, but roasted, thus approached with different craft. Then cup it comparatively. On the same table, the same day). For collegial interaction and fun.

We have carefully restricted the number of attendees at the event.  We want there to be time and space for interaction and access to the coffees and the people who grew them.

THE COLLABORATIVE COFFEE SOURCE

It lies in the name. The Collaborative Coffee Source´s ambition is to be a source, and we want to do it in a collaborative way. We strive for making the coffee trade a transparent interaction between equally important partners; the maker, the importer, the roaster.

We source the coffees from the origins we work with that are outstanding the every meaning of the word. It goes without saying that the cup needs to speak for itself, thus beyond that – or better said – before that, there is a place and people who we want to learn about. The collaborative model is not to take ownership of that, but share it with you – the roaster. After all, it is your coffee.

There is no coffee trader around who’s ultimate goal is to connect you directly with the Place and the People who actually made the coffee you’d be roasting. The Collaborative doesn’t stock green coffee. We find it and we make sure it finds good homes, in Europe, and further afield. If you liked one coffee in the first place, you might be willing to stick to working with a farmer who has committed himself to making awesome coffee for you.

We want to make sure that that happens. And we want to make sure that you get it in a timely fashion.

Welcome to the collaborative!

THE NEWEST CROP: SOUTHERN BRAZIL

We are presenting and cupping the freshest lots of coffees right now.

BRAZIL finished their harvest in the highest growing regions a few weeks ago, the coffee lots are resting and getting ready to be shipped. We were there to preselect the cream of the crop from the highest merited regions - and now we’ll present them to you.

BURUNDI. We are thrilled to present to you this East African gem. It is like the new promised land. A new star from the African continent, wonderfully clean and sweet-tasting. We can’t wait to share our findings and our excitement.

HARD CORE EDUCATION:

VARIETALS

All of the coffees that we are getting from Carmo de Minas in Brazil and all of the coffees from Burundi are Bourbon coffees, thus this is a unique chance to taste & talk about and attributes of Bourbon as a varietal.  To further enlighten and enhance our understanding of varietals, we have invited some of the highest merited coffee farmers on the Planet, the person who has had the fortune, curiosity and skill to work out a strategy for this is what has driven the roasting end of the industry more than anything else in the last few years.

PROCESSING NATURALS

Flavio Borem is a big deal.  He´s never shown his work in Europe before and we are flying him over to share his work with us.  His investigations at the University of Lavras in Brazil are about how processing affects the quality and the taste profile of the coffee in the cup.  This is what we have all being dying to know for so long.  And here he is to tell us.

SO WHY, AGAIN?

Because it is a unique opportunity to choose coffees you wish to purchase.  And to mingle with your European counterparts.

Because it is educational and informative thus giving you a better understanding of what is happening in the coffee world – directly from source.

Lofty ambitions? Sure, why go for less.

So we have found a sexy loft for it.

- Robert

Going In-Depth in Burundi

After one big move across the ocean from Canada to Norway, a year of adjusting to a new place and culture (not so much the cold - I am already from another place that is proudly "North"), countless lectures and furious exam writing, and the start of exciting new work with the Collaborative, it's time for me to begin another adventure. This time in Burundi.

The whole reason I came to Oslo was to study and examine coffee in a new way. I had been working for a company that proudly participates in direct trade (let's ignore the complexity and contentiousness of this term for now) and was both fascinated by and happy that good money was being paid for a higher quality product. But I was also very curious as to how these newly establishing ways of trading coffee is having an impact on the producers. And being the kind that likes to methodically examine things I'm curious in, I decided I needed to go about my study in a rigorous way. So I began studying at the University of Oslo because they offer a unique interdisciplinary program that investigates the wide and far-reaching concepts of environmental sustainability and development.

It's time to put all the theory and discussion I've absorbed over the last year - both at school and with coffee professionals from Norway and abroad - and go and do my fieldwork. It's an exciting time for me, both as an academic, and as a professional at the Collaborative. I chose Burundi because I'd tasted some very interesting coffee from there while still working in Canada. I also had a vague notion about it being one of the least developed countries in the world and was curious as to how that wasn't hampering the production of great coffee (although there is a lot of reforming and development of the coffee sector happening/still to come). The Collaborative is now working in Burundi and I have a unique opportunity to spend a good amount of time learning about this exciting origin on the Collaborative's behalf, as well as for my thesis.

The doing of this fieldwork is pretty straight-forward: I will be talking with/interviewing people involved in producing specialty coffee (i.e. coffee that is grown, picked and processed with care - there is no good short phrase for this, is there?). I want to know what they think about this direct trade concept. I want to know how direct trade affects their livelihoods - their ability to live the kinds of lives they want to live. In a word, how does direct trade affect their "wellbeing"? I'm starting with seemingly simple questions because I know the conversations will yield complex, diverse and unexpected opinions and thoughts. Do producers experience the benefits to their livelihoods that direct traders assume? How do producers perceive this trade model and what direction would they like to see it move ahead in?

In addition to my data collection, I will be visiting washing stations and farms the Collaborative will purchase from. I want to give you roasters as detailed a picture of the people and places you're buying from, as possible. Robert met some very motivated and ambitious producers while in Burundi for CoE last month and now we have an opportunity to better know these people and places. There are some amazing coffees coming your way soon; right now is the time for you to get in on the action!

Drop Joanna a line about what is on offer. Better yet, get in on the action and choose your own lots for us to bring in

Melanie

Burundi - Part II

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A hill or a big hill (as it often literally is) defines rural communities. One’s life is often defined by the hill s(he) lives on –  the way the land is shaped informs the way one lives.

As mentioned in the last post, the whole country is in use, and farms are glued to the terrain, along the hills, or at the bottom of them (the area between hill formations). In some areas, over 500 families live per square kilometre (!), making for extremely cramped conditions.

I spent the last of my days in the country familiarizing myself with Burundi's northern coffee regions. The country is small, so you can travel around very quickly, but everywhere are rock formations that must be manoeuvred and the roads are always full of people. Bicycles, mopeds, cars and trucks must all push forward into the stream of people along the roads. Bujumbura is located within 800 meters of Lake Tanganyika. The drive into the country ends here and within a short time, you’re already up in the mountains. Just north, toward Kayanza, one first passes the known tea regions in Teanza. The hills here are covered in tea bushes, as though covered with green velour carpeting. At around 2000 meters, one notices the climate is fresher, wilder, the wind gusts through the treetops.

My hosts and I travelled to the Coffee Washing Stations (CWS) in Kayanza, where presumably the best coffee in the country is processed. Several of the CWS here delivered the best lots to Burundi's Prestige Cup last year. Prestige Cup was predecessor to this year’s Cup of Excellence. This year the winning lot at Burundi CoE also came from Kayanza.

A little background on CWS

Burundian coffee farmers use their land to grow sustenance food for the family, as well as coffee bushes. The people of Burundi have little tradition when it comes to coffee consumption and sell their coffee cherries for cash to buy clothes, school books, and other things. Farmers no longer process their own coffee cherry; they sell them to CWS, which then processes them into green coffee. But a farmer can be a member of a cooperative that owns a processing station. One typically belongs to whichever CWS is closest to his/her hill or hillside. Cherries are transported daily to the processing station on foot (more accurately, on one’s head) or by bike. After a few hundred farmers supply their daily pickings, everything is mixed and processed the same afternoon. The coffee cherries are then fermented, washed and dried together to represent one day’s production.

This year's winner is “Businde” but we visited neighbouring Mpanga at 1750 masl, which came in second place at Prestige Cup last year. Jean Clemént built Mpanga three years ago, after having worked for over ten years as head of several CWS in the district. He took out loans, partnered with a good colleague and built a CWS as he thinks it should be. But Jean Clément does not speak English, so I got to know him through his cousin, Jeanine.

Jeanine is a graceful woman in her forties who speaks very good English, having lived all over the world throughout the years. She left Burundi just before the first ethnic executions began in 1988 and until a few years ago, she had not seen or heard from her cousin. The last she’d heard of him was that he and his siblings had managed to escape into the woods, as rebels stormed their home and took the lives of all the adults in the house. Now the cousins are ​​reunited and Jeanine has set out to tell the world – in English – about cousin Jean Clément’s work and success. I was all ears.

Over 3,000 families/farmers sell their coffee cherry to Mpanga. Everything is right: altitude, climate, soil and varietal. Each family delivers an average of 500kg per season and Jean Clemént insists on red and ripe cherry. If cherry to this standard is not delivered, it’s sent back to be well sorted. The wet processing technique, which has been common in Burundi since the early 1980s, was reportedly implemented with pressure and support from the World Bank – because it gives coffee value. This is the first time I have seen the use of this technique: after removing the pulp, the coffee is initially fermented for 18 hours in its fruit. The next day the coffee is fermented further in fresh water for an additional 18 hours, but without having been washed. Then the coffee is cleaned in the classical method of washing in channels of fresh water, before it is finally soaked and dried, as is the standard practice in Kenya. For many, this double-fermenting technique has died within the last 2-3 years. If not due to the privatization of CWS, or to allow for less work, then for other causes, which I do not yet have clarity on. But it was difficult to have clarity, when I encountered representatives from the entire coffee industry: members from all levels. Everyone I met was hungry to know what coffee professionals outside the country want and think. It is both strange and wonderful to know that we now discuss how coffee cherries should be processed - to achieve desirable flavour attributes. It's a conversation coffee roasters and coffee farmers could not have had just a few years ago. At least not in Africa.

Jean Clément is provisionally willing to continue with both techniques, at least as long as he has buyers who want one or the other. According to him - I have yet to taste it for myself, and he did not have empirical experience for this - double fermented coffee tastes sweeter, while single-fermented coffee has more acidity. If anything, I would have thought it was the other way around. But the point is that Jean Clément, a farmer and coffee processor in an African country, holed up in a mountains, far off the beaten track, with no means to communicate other than in French; only now has he come in contact with a market that he can communicate with (via his cousin) - and produce the coffee you want.

The future has arrived.

Jeanine (aforementioned cousin) has also helped set up an export company so Jean Clément can send coffee out of the country directly to the buyer and be left with all the profit of his work.

A little number crunching: a farmer delivers and therefore sells his/her own coffee cherries and this is the source of income for the family. Last year the minimum paid for cherries was, on average, 600 BFR or $0.45 USD per kilogram of cherry. If one has 500 kg of cherry per harvest, the annual income is 1250 BFR ($225 USD). Keep in mind that 5 kg of cherry yields about 1kg of green coffee.

During my last visit, I hung out with Angéle, a very hands-on and lively woman. She was born and raised her four children (now almost adults) in Bujumbura. Previously she worked with buying and selling green coffee on the commodity exchange, but in the last six years, has acquired some pieces of land in Kirundo, her home district. She knows the people here and is confident that she can run coffee farms, even though she still lives in Bujumbura. The layout of her farms is drastically different from what one typically expects from coffee plots of 100-300 trees and she will soon have 30,000 coffee bushes on her land (a 12 hectare plot). The "oldest" part of the farm is five years old and produces about 10 tons of Bourbon. She wants to make her coffee operation organic, through the use of organic fertilizers and compost, active farming and frequent maintenance of her coffee bushes.

A few months ago she bought four CWS in the area. We visited Gasura CWS in Kirundu province, which receives coffee cherry from about 1700 farmers and their families, living on 10 different hills. She is currently double-fermenting but wishes to stop using this technique.

Stay tuned for my next post, where I discuss my visit to the Gitega region in the south, where 7 of the 17 CoE winners are from. I talk about cup profiles in this coming post.

Robert

Background to Burundi and CoE Burundi 2012

Baby Bourbon

Burundi is a tiny country in the heart of Africa and extends almost 30 miles in one direction and about 30 miles the other way. The land is mountainous and the characteristic hills roll, resembling a beautiful quilt. With the exception of a few national parks, each square meter of land is in use. Burundi shares a border with the Democratic Republic of Congo along the Tanganyika lake in the west, Tanzania is neighbour east and to the south, Rwanda borders north. Once upon a time, all this was one kingdom. These days, the countries represent the "new" promising coffee countries in East Africa.

With 200 people per square kilometer, Burundi is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. This puts great pressure on land resources, which can hardly be called virgin forest after all the clear-cutting done for firewood and for the grazing of cattle. All this has amounted to, literally, eaten up vegetation. The country is rich in fruits, but the population is impoverished. Of a population of 9.8 million, over 600,000 families earn their livelihoods from coffee cultivation. Coffee is the cash crop. An average coffee farm is in reality a garden with 2-300 coffee bushes, yielding a harvest of about 2-4 bags of green coffee per year. Whether the market pays $3 or $6 per pound for green coffee, matters a great deal, both for a family's living conditions and the country's economy as a whole. Burundi is first and foremost an agricultural country, and coffee and tea exports, together, represent 90% of the country's export income.

Burundi gained independence from Belgium in 1962, but ethnic conflicts that followed the genocide in 1993 (following the course of the genocide in Rwanda) and rebellion have impoverished the people in every sense. In 2009, the country signed a ceasefire between the government and rebels. The Tutsi ethnic group, a minority of the population, has dominated the coffee trade in Burundi. Hutus, the ethnic group representing the vast majority of the population, have been sitting in government over the last few years and have been working to re-build the country. The incoming generation recognize that ethnic conflicts are politically created; these are not conflicts based on race nor are they legal in nature. Tutsis and Hutus have more in common than differences. Nevertheless, Burundi is one of the world's poorest countries, life expectancy is an average of 46 years, half the population is under 15, and half the population over 15 cannot read and write.

Gross domestic product is about $175 USD per capita and the coffee sector, already an essential part of the culture and economy, is also proving to be a cornerstone in the building of a more prosperous future.

Café du Burundi

Politicians at all levels and many organizations, including aid agencies and the World Bank, have worked actively for Burundi to become a producer of specialty coffee. The highlands, climatic conditions, soil quality and plant material go a long way, to this end. Historically Burundi produces OK coffee, but the market has not appreciated its potential. There are three basic factors that always need to be addressed in order to produce specialty coffee: processing techniques must be fine-tuned, the infrastructure and logistics of moving coffee must be in place, and the market must be established and informed.

The former government sector that processes coffee cherries in Burundi, Coffee Washing Stations (CWS), has, over the last few years, been privatized. Of the 175 CWSes, over a third are held by private companies. According to local sources, people in Burundi are more enterprising than in neighbouring countries. The coffee sector, with organizations such as the Alliance for Coffee  Excellence (ACE), has taken over the challenges of processing, logistics and marketing. ACE, owner and organizer of the Cup of Excellence program, seeks to find the areas of the country that demonstrably produce the best coffee. The first step is to train a squad of qualified coffee tasters who can evaluate what the country actually has to offer. This work started four years ago, partly with the support of the agriculture department at the University of Michigan in the US. Paul Songer, head judge for CoE Burundi this year, studied sensory perception at UC Davis and helped educate a dozen proud coffee tasters. These cuppers received over 300 coffee samples from processing stations around the country this year. Of these, 150 were found worthy of sensory evaluation at the national jury level and finally, 60 of the best coffee were selected for evaluation by the international jury.

During the first five days of competition we tasted the submissions in three sections. After the final day, only 17 lots were left, all scoring over 85 points, and two lots having scored over 90 points. I visited the two areas where winning coffees come from and will, in the following post, further describe the country, articulate more on how the coffee trade operates in Burundi and also introduce the people behind these operations. The coffee industry, after all, is a people-centered industry.

Stay tuned,

Robert