In Burundi, we work to secure higher profits for both coffee producers and employees of station staff alike.
As of December 2019, Raw Material processes and exports coffee from Burundi. The construction of a centralised washing station (not seen in all coffee producing countries) serves as a nucleus within a community. This localised position in a community benefits producers by distributing needed agricultural products, supporting the local community through funds, staff, and construction where needed.
RM Burundi works to create wide-reaching community benefits through and beyond the production and sale of coffee.
Welcome celebration for visitors at Izuba Washing Station, Burundi
Breakdown of a typical price paid for coffee from Burundi
Figures are displayed in USD/kg; all values converted to green bean equivalent. Costs and prices vary by region and by cup quality. All data is based on the 2020 harvest, using our mean average FOB price.
Currency assumptions based on rates as of 01/04/2021, USD:BIF 1,944, USD:GBP 0.72.
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Izuba
1500 - 1700 MASL
Kayanza Province, Burundi
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Izuba means “Sun”
The Izuba washing station is set close to a river, providing a vital fresh water source for coffee processing. The station provides premiums where possible to not only the farmers but also to station staff. Once the coffee has been processed, the coffee pulp is turned into a natural fertiliser as it degrades. Once ready, it is distributed to local farmers to add nutrients to their soil.
Drying beds and the main building at Izuba, Burundi
In a similar manner to the way we have worked in Rwanda, Raw Material has relied on the work of local partners in Burundi. These companies are ethically aligned, with the immediate goal of distributing profits more equitably to producers, and paying station staff well above the government set market rate.
Zuberi Matsitsi of Matraco Coffee (Matsitsi Trading Coffee) works with us in precisely this way. Season on season, we are able to provide coffee from his two stations Businde and Nyagishiru to customers around the world. Matraco’s own vision is to:
"Develop the rural world based on the production of specialty coffee, stimulation of agro-pastoral production, promotion of fair trade, natural balance, and protection of the environment”.
At Izuba, we purchase cherries from smallholder producers in the area, then process the cherry into washed, honey, and natural coffees.
Through processing stations, we guarantee the prices paid to producers, and increase the value of the coffee through high attention to detail and quality control. This ensures the highest quality coffee and greatest profitability for producers.
Last year, almost none of the households around Izuba washing station had health insurance. In Burundi this season, we have focussed on ensuring all families delivering cherries to us receive full health insurance. This initiative was revealed as the most effective and desired thing we could do from a long list of possible activities following interviews with the community.
Welcoming celebrations by station staff at Izuba, Burundi
Izuba and Matraco share in ideals for coffee production that are wider-reaching than simply the profits the sale of cherry can provide to producers. Both companies distribute the by-product of coffee processing (coffee pulp) as compost, which given out as a natural fertiliser to the families for their land.
