Burundi FW Masenga Village

This is a fully washed coffee from 400 smallholder farmers in the village of Masenga, Mutambu county, in the region of Mumirwa, eastern Burundi.

THE PRODUCERS

This lot is made up of coffee from 400 smallholder farmers in Masenga village. These farmers typically cultivate an average of 30 coffee trees of the Bourbon variety. Farms range between 1700 and 1800 masl in altitude and farmers deliver their ripe cherries to the central Migoti washing station for processing.

One of the Masenga farmers, Daniel, enjoys sharing information about how to grow coffee with his neighbors (about 800 of them!)  He’s a third generation coffee farmer who’s been producing coffee for 30 years along with his wife, Cevronie, and six children. He’s looking forward to increased prices for coffee so he can continue to share his blessings with his relatives and community.

Migoti Coffee has a vision to economically transform the Mutambu community, and quality coffee production is just one of the entrepreneurial projects planned. They have built a spring-fed water supply for the community, piping water from miles away in the highest mountains of Burundi to the community and to their central washing station. They are also actively developing a small hydropower plant to provide low-cost renewable energy to the local community and to the washing station. 

THE ART OF PRODUCTION

The Masenga farmers deliver their ripe coffee cherries to Migoti washing station, owned and managed by Pontien Ntunzwenimana. The cherries are handpicked and floated to select only the densest, high quality cherries, after which they are de-pulped and then double fermented for a total of 24 hours (once with and once without water). After fermentation the coffee is washed in clean water grading channels and then dried in the sun on raised African beds for 2-3 weeks.

THE REGION

Pontien Ntunzwenimana is the owner of the Migoti Washing Station in Mutambu, Burundi and is a trained civil engineer. He was born and lived through his childhood in Mutambu. Prior to 2015, the multi-generational coffee farmers in Pontien’s home community had all but abandoned coffee as a source of income due to the 12-year civil war (1993-2005) when their Arabica coffee trees were neglected and destroyed.

Another challenge was the great distance between their small farms and washing stations, which led many farmers to home-process lower quality coffee on their farms, gaining unsustainably low prices for their product. With peace in the country and a state-of-the-art coffee washing station that Pontien built in 2016, the local community has new-found hope for the future, and farmers are excited to invest in their coffee farms. Pontien’s three years of green coffee production in Mutambu (2016-2019) have proved the local coffee to be some of the best in Burundi. Pontien continues to work with local farmers to improve quality and quantity in order to build a brighter future for their families and the next generation.