Burundi – Butenaga Intenso

The first coffee washing station in the country was built in 1952. It was named “Butegana”, which means “to be trapped” because Rwandan soldiers were once trapped in the valley by the Burundian army.  

During the rule of King Mwambutsa, the Prince Baranyanka had the station constructed to take advantage of the abundant coffee plants in the region. Strategically, the station was built to be shared between two hills. All the station’s buildings are on one hill, Shikankoni, and all the drying tables are on the other, Nkuba.  

Most coffee 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 product for the 3-4 years it will take new plantings to begin to yield. In order to encourage farmers to renovate their plantings, Greenco 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 from reconverted coffee pulp.

Despite the ubiquity of coffee growing in Burundi, each smallholder producers a relatively small harvest. The average smallholder 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 200-300 kilos of cherry annually.

During the harvest season, all coffee is selectively hand-picked. Most families only have 200 to 250 trees, and harvesting is done almost entirely by the family.