Here's what Raw Materials the importer of this coffee have to say about it:

Izuba meaning “sun” in Kirundi, is located in Runinya, Kabarore Commune, of Kayanza Province. The Izuba washing station is set close to a nearby river, providing a vital and regular freshwater source for coffee processing. The station is managed by Ntama Appolinaire, who works alongside Prosper Merrimee, the operational manager of RM Burundi. Izuba employs 2 full-time staff and around 250 seasonal workers, who are all local to the station. Izuba is situated near to the Kibira national park, where the soil and climate are paired well for fantastic coffee production.

Kigeri, Ryamukona, and Mugoyi …

Are the three hills (collines) surrounding Izuba and the three areas in which coffee is collected or delivered from. Each volume of cherry sold to Izuba is recorded by producer and hillside, showing the minute variances in profile from locations surrounding the washing station. In 2020 we bought coffee from 1482 producers, 1169 of which were male and 313 female (around 26%). We processed 453,000kg of cherry, the max capacity of the station is 800,000kg.

Payment

The station aims to provide premiums where possible to not only the farmers but the station staff also. The employees were paid 25% higher than other local washing stations and 33% more than the national average salary. Producers are paid government-set prices for coffee cherries. For example, in 2020 these were:

Cherry A (ripe) 550 BIF/kg

Cherry B (underripe, floaters etc) 275 BIF/KG

Producers are paid for cherry on two set payment dates in the year, which are also set by the government. The first is usually in April, very early in the harvest, and the second at the end of the harvest. Farmers essentially choose which 

station they will sell to that year through the first payment then deliver there for the whole season. At the end of the season third payments are made based on the quality and final sale price of the coffee. Making these three payments on time is a key concern for producers and one of Izuba's primary goals in supporting producers.

Processing

All cherry is hand-sorted before a pre-pulp float, where any under ripe or damaged cherry is removed. The selected cherry is now pulped through the Penagos pulper, in preparation for fermentation, without the use of water.

Then they head to the African raised beds, where they are intensively hand picked throughout the drying phase. Based on the weather we batch the parchment together in order to control the evenness of drying. This drying time takes 30 days on average.

We are very excited to offer our first coffee from Izuba that is exclusively from the association’s female producers. The women that produce the coffee for this lot are situated across the hills that surround Izuba, with a total of 313 contributors to the lot this season.

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