Gahahe

Burundi began to focus on specialty coffee production in 2008 while rebuilding an economy devastated by civil war. In the years following bureaucracy has imposed some of the most significant constraints on quality and traceability. Otherwise, the conditions here are excellent for coffee production. Nearly 100% of the coffee cultivated is heirloom red bourbon, and the weather is usually favorable for washed and natural process coffees alike.

The farms here are incredibly small - a hectare or two at most - with an average of only 250 coffee plants. Coffee will ripen gradually throughout the harvest, so what you'll see is farmers making frequent, small deliveries, carried by hand or balanced on the seat of a bicycle, to central washing stations or to more remote collection points. For this reason proximity determines which organization a farmer sells coffee to - a perennial challenge for exporters because the same collection points are licensed to different parties annually and according to projected yields. In all cases a finished lot represents the combined work of an entire community...