Gahahe washing station in Kayanza province, Burundi is equipped with 10 fermentation tanks, 4 cherry selection tables, 2 soaking tanks, and 180 drying tables. It has a capacity to process up to 750 metric tons of cherry per season. The station participates in farmer outreach and support projects like a livestock rearing project, and Farmer Hub projects to strengthen cooperatives and improve yields. The average smallholder producer in Burundi has around 250 trees, yielding about 200-300 kilos of cherry per year. Bugestal, which owns the washing station, encourages farmers to renovate their plantings by purchasing seeds from the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU), establishing nurseries and selling the seedlings to farmers at or below cost. At the station, farmers can also get organic fertilizer derived from composted coffee pulp.
Quality assurance begins as soon as farmers deliver their cherry to the washing station. Cherry is wet-processed under close supervision, with pulping, fermentation, washing, grading, and final soaking all monitored closely. All cherry is floated in small buckets to check quality, with the higher quality cherry sorted by hand to remove all damaged, underripe, and overripe cherries. Once sorted, cherry is pulped within 6 hours of delivery. The coffee is dry fermented for up to 12 hours and then soaked in clean mountain water for 12 to 24 hours. Parchment is soaked for an additional 12-18 hours before being moved to drying beds, where it takes approximately 2 to 3 weeks to dry. The parchment is then bagged, taken to the warehouse, and assessed by Greenco’s team of expert cuppers. The coffee is then sent to Budeca, Burundi’s largest dry mill, to be milled and hand-sorted by a team of hand-pickers who look closely at every single bean to ensure zero defects.
Greenco is a company that oversees and structures washing stations in Kayanza province, Burundi. It provides support to washing stations and producers all along the production chain. The company started its work in 2015 and currently has 13 washing stations, all located in Kayanza. The producers receive support from Greenco’s CWS managers, who are all agronomic engineers. The company’s impact extends to over 15,210 coffee producing households. Greenco works with young agronomy graduates to provide farmer training and manage washing stations. The agronomists receive additional training from the NGO Kahawatu Foundation on best agricultural practices. Greenco’s work has had a significant impact on the Burundian economy, as it is the first employer in the region during the coffee harvest season, providing employment for thousands of people.
