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

This Is Burundi Coffee, or TIB, are one of our purchasing partners in Burundi. Operated by Prosper Merimee and his family, TIB’s vision is to create a true, sustainable impact of the communities and farmers that they buy from, connecting their harvests to buyers in the specialty market that want to have producer wellbeing as a central tenet to their procurement.

TIB have established long standing relationships based on trust with the producers of Gasorwe Commune. In partnership with Raw Material’s own station Izuba, and the assistance of Gaudam Anbalagan, Karambo is a station that is firmly focussed on improving the cup quality, processing techniques and overall operations of the station, which ultimately results in larger profitability potential for the producers Karambo buys cherry from. Karambo is a very new washing station, which began operating in 2021. In their first year of operations they produced two containers of exportable coffee. 12 months on, and they have produced a whopping five more, more than doubling their processing capacity, and also buying volume, in just one year.

TIB acquired the land for Karambo Washing Station on Karambo hill, Gasorwe Commune, Muyinga District. Muyinga is a district located in the North East of Burundi, where the producers who sell to Karambo are situated at between 1500 - 1700 MASL. This location is perfectly placed for reliably drying conditions for coffee, with high levels of sun and quite predictable rain. The region of Muyinga is most known for tourism in the Ruvubu National Park, and most notably the Ruvubu River, which joins the Nile. Muyinga is a region also well known for its rich mineral and ore density, with a large industry in the extraction of gold and coltan. Over time, Muyinga is becoming more and more known for its high quality coffee production, alongside the province of Kayanza, where our station Izuba is located.

Payment

The station aims to provide premiums where possible for the cherry received. In Burundi, producers are paid government-set prices for coffee cherries, in 2021 these were:

Cherry A (ripe) 800 BIF/kg

Cherry B (underripe, floaters etc) 400 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 Karambo’s primary goals in supporting producers. This season, the premium of 30 BIF/kg was given to coffee that made it to the higher quality bracket of cherry A.

Processing

Karambo currently produces washed, honey, natural, and anoxic natural coffees. Washed coffees are fermented for around 12 hours and dried for an average of 20 days. Naturals take around 30 days of drying time. Potato defect is tackled firstly through very thorough floating of cherries and then primarily by extensive wet sorting (this is the hand sorting that takes place under cover when the coffee has just been pulped and is still wet - the potato defect beans are most visible at this point). 

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