About This Coffee
Kigobe Washing Station is owned by Mrs. Angele Ciza, who founded Kahawa Link Company (Kalico) in 2012. The station is in the town of Kigobe in Kirundo Province. It processes approximately 200 metric tons of cherry annually.
Kigobe is one of seven washing stations that Mrs. Angele Ciza and her friend Consolata purchased in 2012 when they began Kalico. Today, Angele owns and manages Kalico with her son, Alex.
Angele has a 10-hectare coffee plantation in Northern Burundi and employs over 100 women at her farm and washing stations. Additionally, she pays school fees for the children of her employees.
Cultivation
Angele knew that in order to produce the best quality coffee, she needed to forge partnerships with the farmers delivering to her stations. From the beginning, the washing stations focused on agricultural extension work with the producers that emphasized best practices for quality production. The stations offer advice to farmers on everything from establishing nurseries to picking only the ripest cherry.
As farmers continue to improve the quality of their cherry, Angele is focusing her investments on additional training, access to inputs, micro-credit and micro-insurance, enhancing environmental protections and strengthening social infrastructures.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
After farmers deliver their cherry, ripe cherry is moved to raised beds where it dries in the sun. Employees rake drying cherry frequently to ensure even drying and visually inspect it to remove any defective cherry.
About Kirundo Province
While Kayanza in northwestern Burundi is the most famous coffee-growing province in the country, Kirundo, in the northeast, is also well suited for coffee production.
Most farms are situated at high altitudes between 1,400 and 1,700 meters above sea level. Due to a lack of infrastructure and financial capacity, most farmers do not use any chemical inputs, making most coffees grown here Organic by default. Additionally, most rootstock is older, which leads to low average yields per hectare. However, thanks to the climate and geography, the province has an immense potential to produce specialty coffees and is well on its way to doing so.
Coffee in Burundi
Burundi has long been overlooked in comparison to its neighboring East African specialty coffee producing powerhouses. However, Burundi season, for us, is one of the highlights of the annual coffee calendar. The country’s coffee is produced almost entirely by smallholder farmers, and much of this small-scale production is of exceptional quality. With its super sweet, clean and often floral coffees, Burundi, every year, is increasingly is putting itself on the specialty coffee map.
Coffee is of paramount importance to families and the country at large. Considering this, improving and expanding coffee infrastructure is not just a way to improve incomes, it is a way to revolutionize the earning potential of an entire nation.
Building washing stations and expanding agricultural extension work can be great ways to improve coffee quality. Washing stations are pivotal in improving cup profile standards and the global reputation of Burundian coffee.
Both state-owned and private actors drive Burundi’s coffee industry and play key roles as washing station management companies and exporters. State-owned companies are called Sogestals, short for “Sociétés de Gestions des Stations de Lavage” (Washing station management companies). Privately-owned companies can operate under a variety of different names.
Sucafina’s history in Burundi goes back to 2007 when Bucafe/Sucafina Burundi was established in Bujumbura. Through Bucafe, we work with several privately-owned washing station management companies and exporters. Our work bridges the entire supply chain, allowing us to be vertically integrated. Our supply chain is solid, reliable and transparent. Due to this, we are more efficient, able to supply better value and positioned to offer both producers and consumers of Burundian coffee a diversity of expertise.