Burundi FW15+ Codemu
About This Coffee
History of Coffee in Burundi
During colonization, Belgians forced the people of Burundi to grow coffee to pay taxes, an all too familiar story. So, it is understandable that after independence, the farmers of Burundi were less than enthusiastic about growing coffee and there was almost no focus on quality. When world coffee prices dropped to historic lows 20 years ago, prices paid to farmers by government run washing stations were so low that coffee was smuggled into neighboring countries to be sold as Rwandan or Tanzanian coffee. When prices began to rise and become relatively stable, Burundi coffee farmers in the northern highlands did not forget that Rwanda received better prices for quality. The coffee farmers of Burundi began to emulate some of what was happening in Rwanda, forming cooperatives and seeking ways to improve quality.
Schluter (now Covoya Europe) was instrumental in the emergence of specialty coffee in Burundi. Prior to 2005 the specialty market in Burundi was effectively non-existent. We hypothesised that by investing in the coffee sector with the goal to migrate 10% of production into the specialty market, we could increase the entire country’s GDP by 2%. We set about mapping the existing coffee infrastructure, down to every wet and dry mill, to assess existing quality and potential and target investment effectively.
Following this pivot towards higher quality processing, in collaboration with our local partner Jean-Michel Rishi we financed Ikawa Nziza in 2013, the first ever purpose-built dry mill for speciality coffees in Burundi.
The Process
Ripe cherries (superior quality) are selected from daily pickings and then floated to select only the highest quality cherries by density. These are then pulped, wet-fermented for 12-18 hours and then thoroughly washed in grading channels to remove all the remaining mucilage and further select the coffee by density. The coffee is then dried on raised beds, first in the shade and then in full sunlight for a total of around 2-3 weeks. The coffee is carefully turned throughout to maintain a consistent drying process. One the optimum moisture content has been reached the coffee is rested in a cool dark environment prior to export.
The coffee is then milled at Ikawa Nziza, Burundi's first ever purpose built specialty dry mill, set up by Schluter (now Covoya Europe) to process high quality microlot coffees in smaller volumes and at altitude to preserve quality.
- Subregion Musema, Kayanza
- Producer Type Cooperative
- Processing Washed
- Bag Types Grain Pro / Ecotact
- Plant Species Arabica
- Min Growing Altitude 1600m
- Max Growing Altitude 1800m
- Screen Size 15 Up
- Co-Op Codemu
- On Sale No
- Top Lot No
- Price Per Kg £6.50
- Status Spot
- Coffee Grade BDI CA FW SC 15+
- CTRM Contract Number P8001788-1
- Origin Burundi
- Warehouse Vollers Group Uk