The history of coffee cultivation in Burundi is relatively short and straightforward. Burundi as a kingdom has a long history dating back hundreds of years. Coffee, on the other hand, was only introduced to Burundi by Belgian colonists in the 1930s. This foreshadowed the relationship of the people with coffee for decades to come - coffee farming was not a free profession, but an order from above.

After Burundi proclaimed independence in 1962, coffee cultivation went downhill quickly. The political instability and turbulences during the fragile decades of building a new independent nation certainly did not help either. Coffee was completely nationalized and the market conserved. Only in 2008, after many years, the government reacted to the dynamics of the specialty coffee market and allowed private businesses to enter the coffee market, established a coffee auction and soon after allowed direct trade between producers and buyers.

Burundi cultivates exclusively arabica. Robusta may also be encountered, but it represents a marginal part of the production.

Red Bourbon is the most common and pretty much the only variety grown in Burundi. It’s famous for its full body and fruitiness, meaning acidity and sweetness. The taste qualities are superior to many varieties and are a great counterweight to the relatively high susceptibility to disease.

The variety comes from the isle of Réunion (earlier known as Bourbon), which it reached through Yemen from its homeland in Ethiopia. The the coffee trees have been mutating and adapting through to the local climate for decades. For this reason, they are slightly genetically distinct in various regions and altitudes.

For the near future, Burundian producers are planning to explore introducing new varieties suitable for the local conditions.

Most coffee in Burundi is cultivated in the northern and northeastern portions of the country. These areas offer ideal conditions for arabica - abundant rainfall, moderate climate and high altitude. Burundi does not have any official division of coffee regions, so we use our own classification based on natural landmarks.

Kayanza is definitely the most famous coffee-producing province in Burundi. The biggest and most renowned portion of coffee production happens there and the popular fully washed coffees with intense citrus acidity come from Kayanza. We place Kayanza into a region called Kibira, named after the cloud forest and national park connected to Nyungwe in Rwanda. West of the Kibira range, the landscape drops towards the Rusizi river, which gave the name to another of our regions. The local coffees are the fruitiest of them all, thanks to the largest annual precipitation in all of Burundi.

The second highest-potential area in Burundi is the northeast, especially the Muyinga province. We call this region Ruvubu, after the savannah, national park and river which is connected with the river and eponymous national park Akagera in Rwanda. The climate here is the driest out of all the Burundian areas and the altitude slightly lower. That gives the coffees a lower acidity, while preserving a strong sweetness and floral tones, which results in tastes of dried fruits and florals.

A small but notable part of the production happens in the central and southern parts of the country, which we call the Burundian Highlands. The climatic and geographic conditions are roughly halfway between the northwest and northeast, and the same applies to the taste characteristics.

Wet processing historically dominates Burundi. Most places employ the more sophisticated “double-washed” method. That means the coffee cherries are soaked in fresh water for about 24 hours after pulping. That makes the mucilage swell and break, which improves the process of removing it from parchment and the resulting beans have almost zero outer sugars left on their surface.

Just like elsewhere in the world, the pressure of demand from the specialty industry inspires the producers to try other methods such as dry processing, various kinds of honey or to experiment with fermentation methods. These processes are more difficult to do right when it comes to time, space and proficiency, but the resulting diversity of taste and offerings increases the competitiveness of the farmers and thus their income as well.

The way of doing agriculture in Burundi is very similar to its neighbouring countries. The number of coffee farmers is estimated to be around 700 000 people. Each of them only owns a small amount of trees on just about an eight of a hectare of land. They further group up into cooperatives and sell their coffee cherries harvest in small quantities to a washing station, which further processes and sells the coffees.

Such a way is on one hand very ecological. Plantations of individual farmers are strongly fragmented, they do not form monocultures, many different plant species are present and form a rich ecosystem for small animals.

The problem of Burundi is a bad economical situation, caused by decades of political instability. Frequent outbreaks of hunger and low levels of education causes and undwindling population growth, which keeps adding more and more pressure on deforestation and claiming land for people. Trends which were successfully stopped and turned in a better direction in neighbouring Rwanda are unfortunately still continuing in Burundi.

When people are in a crisis and are unable to gain enough food from agriculture or employment, they turn to hunting wild animals to sustain themselves. This creates a lot of pressure on the Burundian natural environment. The positive developments in the coffee industry, which is the number one export of the country, helps stabilize the situation in the society, gives people security for the future and teaches them to be responsible not only when it comes to growing coffee. The improvements are slowly expressing themselves and we hope that thanks to us and other coffee importers, this trend can be sustained and improved.