Tales from Burundi

Overview

Specialty Grade coffee in Burundi is all fully washed. Most of it is grown by small stakeholders who then harvest and transport their cherry to local washing stations. Many farmers are organized into co-operatives who elect boards of representatives to work with the washing stations on their behalf.

Through the work of the BAP/PAIR project, the quality control procedures of the coffee industry are becoming much more defined. A quality control lab in Ngozi province has been opened, several Q-Graders have been trained, and strict protocols for handling coffee samples are followed. Another lab has been established at the Sodeco dry mill in Gitega province, as has one in the offices of ARFIC in Bujumbura. Thanks to the efforts of PAIR to develop traceability mechanisms, feedback can readily be given to individual farmers throughout the harvest season. PAIR also works with several exporters with the goal of getting coffee to port as quickly as possible after processing. They have worked with over 30 washing stations on improving their process control as well as on minimizing their environmental impact.

Every time a farmer brings cherry in, its weight is recorded in a register, and the farmer is given a receipt. This improves the traceability of each lot, meaning if a particular lot scores highly, it can be determined who grew it and when. It is also helpful for providing feedback to farmers on improvements that can be made to their agronomic practices. Most stations pay either once or twice a month when the farmers bring in their receipts, but if immediate payment is required, that can be accommodated as well. The price per pound is set based on the previous year’s average price. If, however, the coffee sells for more, the farmer is paid the difference. In some cases the farmer can choose to simply have the station process their cherry but not take ownership of it. In such situations the farmer is simply charged a service fee (we were unable to determine the amount).

The coffee industry in Burundi has recently undergone a process of deregulation. This means that the government-run washing stations are slowly being sold to private companies. This has caused some turmoil in the near-term because some of the privately-owned washing stations are investing in new equipment (such as de-mucilage machines) while the government-run ones see no point in investing large sums of money into stations that they will soon sell.

Processing

Once the cherry has been picked, it needs to get to the washing station, which can be several kilometers away. It is important to get the cherry to the station as quickly as possible, otherwise the it will begin to ferment before it is supposed to. Most specialty grade coffee in Burundi begins processing about 6 hours after it is picked. Research done by agronomists with the SPREAD project in Rwanda has indicated that the best results are obtained when the cherry is processed within 3 hours of harvest. Achieving this is difficult as the only way to get the cherry to the washing station is by foot, and the roads leading to the washing stations are typically very uneven and steep.

The first stage is in selecting the cherries that are ripe and free of defects. This is done by first placing them in a water-filled tank. Those that float to the top are underdeveloped or have been compromised by insects. Once those are removed, the cherry is sorted by sight to remove any remaining green (under-ripened) ones. Each farmer’s lots are then weighed. Each lot is put into a register showing how much has been brought in throughout the harvest season. When everything has been recorded, the farmer is then given a receipt for their cherry. After the coffee is weighed, it’s put into a holding tank where it gets mixed with the other lots of the day (there are now efforts in place to keep some farmer’s lots separate if it is large enough and of exceptional quality).

Traditionally, the cherry is left in this tank overnight to undergo a ‘pre-ferment.’ Coffee that undergoes this is said to have been “double-fermented.” Once an appropriate lot is ready, the de-pulping machine fires up. The cherry flows down from the holding tank through this machine. Its purpose is to remove the fruit from the cherry by passing it through a series of rotating discs. The coffee then goes into a water tank that is topped by a series of tanks. The sufficiently de-pulped coffee passes through the grates, and the dense (higher quality) seeds fall to the bottom of the tank, while the lower quality ones float. The coffee from the bottom of the tank is sucked up through a tube and down into a fermentation tank, while the floaters are put into a separate one. Any cherries that pass through the machine won’t fall through the grate and are redirected to another tank for re-processing.

Once the whole lot is de-pulped, the fermentation tanks are filled with water and set to ferment for 10-18 hours to remove the mucilage left on the exterior of the seed. This must be carefully monitored so that the fermentation occurs evenly throughout the whole tank. It must not be filled too high. The endpoint of fermentation is set as the point at which the mucilage falls of the seeds when rubbed by hand. At this point, the coffee is sent into a fresh soaking tank to halt the fermentation. It will stay in this tank for an additional 12-20 hours. Once ready, the tank is opened and the coffee flows with a fresh batch of water down a graded channel. This is another stage of sorting. As the coffee flows through the channel, the lighter seeds float freely, while the denser ones sink. A team of men then walk against the current and turn the seeds over with paddles to ensure that all the lighter beans flow down the channel while the denser ones stay up. This also serves to remove remaining mucilage from the beans. Depending on how quickly the coffee was processed after harvesting, this could take anywhere from 1 – 3 hours.

The next stage is to dry the parchment (even after the mucilage is removed the seeds are still covered in a papery substance called parchment). The coffee is taken to a series of raised mesh tables to be again sorted while it is drying. It is important to dry the coffee slowly (~20-24 hours) or else the parchment will crack. It is also easier to notice differences in the colour of the beans while they are still wet. This makes sorting easier. One way to achieve this is by placing the raised beds in shade. A new technique being tried out in Burundi has the parchment being placed in pyramid-shaped piles in the sun. Sorters will constantly turn the parchment over.

Once the parchment is dry, it is ready for storage in 50 kg bags and then transport by truck to the nearest dry mill. Typically it won’t be processed until it is ready for export because it is less susceptible to environmental damage when encased in parchment. The process of dry milling involves removing the parchment and silver skin surrounding the coffee seed. This is followed by another round of weight-sorting, this time by machine. The coffee is then passed through a UV sorter, which takes out defects not detectible by the naked eye or by density. The final round of sorting (reserved for coffees of the highest quality) is done by a group of women who pick through each sack, looking for black beans, cracked beans, beans damaged by insects or machines, etc. Once this is finished, the coffee is put into 60kg sacks and sent to port (either Kenya or Tanzania) for transport by sea.

Coffee processing takes a toll on the environment. The washing stations use several hundred litres of water to process a single lot of coffee, and the water used to ferment the coffee becomes highly acidic and can’t be reintroduced to the water system without treatment. PAIR has worked with 3 washing stations on implementing a series of water treatment systems. In conjunction with this, they’ve developed systems for separating coffee pulp from water to use it as compost for fertilization. This process is common in Latin America, but not yet widely used in East Africa.