Burundi Kayanza Nemba Natural

The growers delivering coffee to the Nemba station are all located around 1,700+ meters above sea level, near the Kibira forest. The washing station has over 200 drying tables and can process up to 750 metric tons of cherry each year. The washing station participates in a number of farmer outreach and support projects including a livestock rearing project and a range of Farmer Hub projects centered on strengthening cooperatives and improving yields.

Many trees in Burundi are Red Bourbon. Because of the increasingly small size of coffee plantings, aging rootstock is a very big issue in Burundi. Many farmers have trees that are over 50 years old, but with small plots to farm, it is difficult to justify taking trees entirely out of production for the 3 to 4 years it will take for new plantings to begin to yield. In order to encourage farmers to renovate their plantings, Bugestal purchases seeds from the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU), establishes nurseries and sells the seedlings to farmers at or below cost. At the washing station, farmers can also get organic fertilizer made from composted cherry pulp. Despite the ubiquity of coffee growing in Burundi, each smallholder produces a relatively small harvest. The average smallholder in Burundi has approximately 250 trees, normally in their backyards. Each tree yields an average of 1.5 kilos of cherry so the average producer sells about 200 to 300 kilos of cherry annually. During the harvest season, all coffee is selectively hand-picked. Most families have only 200 to 250 trees, and harvesting is done almost entirely by the Family.