Tag: Burundi coffee farmers

Celebrating Women in Coffee

Written by Robyn-Leigh van Laren, Story Manager at Long Miles Coffee.

For decades, farming coffee has been considered as a “man’s job”. This is not just the case in Burundi, but the world over. According to the most recent data collected by the World Bank, women make up just over half of Burundi’s population. Some sources say that women make up more than half of the country’s agricultural labor force.

But, any number or statistic without context can be misleading. We could list the number of women that we work with, but what would that number mean in a greater context? It certainly wouldn’t be representative of the global coffee industry, let alone the coffee industry in Burundi. Women are without a doubt significant contributors to the coffee sector in Burundi, but are underrepresented in leadership, decision and policy-making roles.

“In the rural parts of Burundi, women are working more than men. You can often see the men, but the women are hidden from view while managing many other tasks.” – Joy Mavugo

Women in Burundi work a multitude of jobs. One could go as far to say that they have a disproportionate number of roles and responsibilities. Generally, women who are producing coffee are also managing households, raising children, growing and harvesting subsistence crops to either cook or sell at the local market. Some of these women are also taking up seasonal jobs at the coffee washing stations adjacent to their homes where they typically hand-pick coffee to make ends meet- a key but labor-intensive role that has a profound impact on coffee quality.

Not all women in agriculture feel empowered to take up the jobs that men tend to do. Even if they do feel empowered, there is no guarantee that they will be compensated at the same rate as men for their labor. Many people believe that women in coffee should be paid less because their labor is generally less intensive than men.

“Where are the women?”

When we hold meetings with our partnering coffee farmers, more men tend to gather than women. Why is that? Women are often busy with other farm work or household tasks. I would often look around at these meetings and ask, “Where are the women?” People would look up and chuckle at me, the mzungu who can’t wrap her head around the complexities of gender roles in Burundi. From what I’ve come to understand is that women aren’t always intentionally excluded but their often unaccounted for labor will mostly be laughed off because that’s how it’s always been.

Why are we doing this? It was one of the first questions that I wrote down when thinking of running a series celebrating women in coffee. When I asked my colleague Joy Mavugo this question, her response was, “You know, if we were doing a series on men in coffee, we wouldn’t stop to think about this question.”

“If we were doing a series on men in coffee, we wouldn’t stop to think about this.”

Her words stuck with me for weeks. Ironically, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, which is why we’ll be sharing and celebrating the stories of incredible women working in coffee over the next couple of weeks.

March 24, 2023
A Farmer Story: Apollinaire

This blog post was written by Joy Maguvo, Long Miles Coffee Story Assistant.

Apollinaire Nzobonimpa is a coffee farmer from Nkonge Hill in Burundi and is very involved in maintaining his coffee plantations.

Along with the help of coffee scouts, he is able to manage pruning, mulching and applying fertilizer to his crops. However, there are some tasks, such as applying disease-eliminating coffee spray, that are out of his control and in the hands of the government. As many coffee farmers know, these coffee sprays can be a key to healthy-growing coffee trees. Without them, cherry growth can suffer.

Over time, many coffee farmers in Burundi have been struggling with Urukarakara, a coffee berry disease (CBD). The impact of CBD has been felt nationwide and it’s known that coffee spray could be the resolve many coffee farmers are looking for. Unfortunately, the requests for these cherry-saving chemicals are sometimes met with an unfavorable answer; “the chemicals to help eliminate CBD are very expensive – even the government is not able to get them right now.”

Even so, if the government receives the chemicals, the process to obtain them can still be quite long. Once in the hands of commune agronomists they are given to coffee monitors (i.e. government coffee scouts) who then manage distribution to coffee farmers. With so many coffee farmers in Burundi, the waiting game can prove itself to be costly.

This year, for Apollinaire and many other farmers, a miracle has truly happened! A nationwide coffee spray campaign has taken place to help better manage CBD and ward off the damage from insects.

Along with coffee spray, a powder-based chemical has become available. Not only is it the first time in Apollinaire’s coffee-growing career that he has seen anything like it, other farmers have been equally as amazed. “There is no way to explain the joy we have in receiving this CBD-fighting powder,” said Apollinaire. “We can’t wait to see the good changes!”

With each coffee farmer in Burundi receiving enough powder to spray all of their trees, there is much hope that the negative impact of CBD will be managed…or better yet…eradicated completely.

January 26, 2023
A Farmer Story: Gervais

This blog post was written by Joy Maguvo, Long Miles Coffee Story Assistant.

Gervais Mpabonimana is a coffee farmer from Kabuye Hill. He is 69 years old and is the father of seven children.

After dropping out of Don Bosco School in 1968, he moved in with his parents. In 1974, after their failed attempts at encouraging him to go back, they gave him a plot of land for planting some coffee trees and ordered him to marry. Gervais was married in 1976. That same year, he planted 60 coffee trees on his plot of land. Most would believe this was the beginning of his coffee journey. However, Gervais had other callings he was interested in pursuing at that time.

He became very involved in Catholicism and was a teacher of children. Growing coffee was not his first priority. In 1978, he went to Centre de Formation à la Catéchisme et au Développement (CFCD) in Bujumbura to further train in Catechism and Catholic development. It was one year before the end of this three-year training program that Gervais’ coffee journey truly began.

While home during a summer holiday, a national survey was conducted to determine the number of coffee farmers and coffee trees owned. The survey consisted of a meeting held on Kabuye Hill where each coffee farmer stood up and informed the group of the number of trees they had. During that meeting, Gervais became ashamed to be the farmer who had the fewest coffee trees. Especially since coffee was considered to be one of the crops that brought the most development to the country. From then on, he was determined to make coffee growing a bigger priority for the betterment of his family and country. After three years of farming-focused training in Bujumbura, he began an internship in Belgium. During this internship, he earned a small amount of money he used to purchase more land for planting coffee trees. TODAY, he has 15 coffee plantations with 1,200 coffee trees located in Burundi.

Beyond being a coffee farmer, Gervais remains a dedicated Catechist and since 2003 has been teaching at the Institut Catéchétique Africain. This school used to be in Rwanda (Butare) but it moved to Burundi (Kayanza Province) in 2002. Here, he teaches four lessons. In addition, he teaches three lessons in Ngozi Province at École Reine des Apôtres (Queen of the Apostles School).

While coffee farming continues to be an important part of his life, Gervais also considers it to be a catalyst in helping him serve God freely with less stress. It is because of coffee farming he is able to spend six days a week teaching. His time is split between Kayanza and Ngozi. He has no monthly salary and through his teachings, he only receives what he calls a ‘fanta’ (very little money). This is a unique situation. In the area where Gervais lives, men are typically in charge of securing income for their family and women provide food. However, for Gervais, coffee growing covers everything. “While I consider being a Catechist one of my callings, I also need to make sure my coffee plantations are well-maintained. Those plantations are why my family is standing,” said Gervais.

With such a busy teaching schedule, Gervais is thankful for the Long Miles Coffee Scouts. They play a big role in helping maintain his coffee plantations. “Before, I used to have at least three hours a week of visiting my plantations which wasn’t easy due to my teaching and travel schedule,” said Gervais. “Now, I feel safe in knowing the Coffee Scouts are doing a great job. My worries are less as they are informing me on what is needed at the plantations and I am able to be more efficient with my work.”

Gervais was planning to be retired soon. However, thanks to the Long Miles Coffee Scouts, the only plan he has for retirement is to continue to focus on his coffee farms and add more in the future.

January 6, 2023
Pruning and Mulching: Enhancing Coffee Productivity and Quality
This post was written by Epaphras Ndikumana, Social and Environment Impact Manager for Long Miles Coffee

Every year after the coffee harvest season, generally from June up to the end of August in Burundi, many coffee farmers turn their focus to pruning and mulching activities. This is largely done because they are taken to be the basic and good practices in coffee farming. In some regions of the country, these activities go neglected because of the farmers’ ignorance or inability to perform the tasks as too demanding in terms of technical, material, knowledge, and/or financial resources. Nevertheless, the farmers working with Long Miles carry them out seriously, motivated by the help of the Coffee Scouts, because they are materially and technically supported by Long Miles and have also understood and seen for themselves the power of mulching and pruning in enhancing the productivity and the quality of the coffee they produce.

This season, the support provided by Long Miles allowed the pruning of more than 37,000 coffee trees in August and the work kept going until the middle of September. Working together with farmers on these activities puts into action two of Long Miles’ core values: Ubuntu and Grit, as we all fight for coffee quality improvement and success.

Mulching

This is a critical practice in coffee farms as it provides core nutrients to a coffee tree which are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. It is also positive in a number of other regards :
- Protection against soil erosion,
- Regulation of the soil temperature and maintaining soil humidity,
- Improvement of the soil’s pH and cation exchange capacity,
- Reduction of threatening vegetatives (i.e. weeds),
- Improvement of the soil’s biological life,
- Prevention of rainfall and soil compaction
Pruning

In addition to mulching, the pruning practice is also known for its big contribution to increasing coffee production and quality. In fact, through the implementation of specific types of pruning, the practice is known to contribute to increasing productivity by up to 30% compared to when it is not implemented.

In Burundi, as well as in the LMCP zones of operation, four styles of pruning are implemented :
- Maintenance: This practice consists in removing the suckers growing on the stump, stems, or branches. It is implemented throughout the year, whenever the suckers appear. This is because suckers that are left to grow, especially if there are many of them, weaken the tree and this loses its energy to produce many cherries.
- Production: Implemented once a year, after the harvest season, production pruning consists of:
  - Removing all the dead, too bushy, and very long branches,
  - Removing all the sterile, malformed, and broken branches, and
  - Removing the excessively branched branches
- Regeneration: This practice consists in removing all the unproductive aged trees. It is implemented every 6 to 8 years when productivity highly decreases. It can also be implemented on abandoned or parasitized trees.
- Growth: This is practiced in a newly planted coffee farm that is only one year old. It consists in bending down the principal tree stem from which will be grown three or more stems that will provide production. In Burundi, only three stems are only recommended.
October 13, 2022
FLAVORS OF EAST AFRICA

There are a myriad of factors that can impact the flavors that end up in your cup of coffee. Influences on taste start with the growing environment, then processing, and end with roasting and brewing.

We can do very little to control the environment, so our focus is on how we process coffees from different regions in order to draw out, and not inhibit, their innate characteristics. We work with what the earth gives us and join hands with our roasting partners to all play a part in the final product. But before we get there, the environment has had her say – through altitude, climate, soil type, soil microbiome, and typography. Each of these factors differ not only from country to country, but region to region, and even hill to hill.

We know the coffee journey from cherry to cup is complex. Our aim is to honor the complexity of flavors inherent in each of the countries we operate in.

There is a tendency within the coffee industry to talk about Latin American coffees and East African coffees as two broad and distinct flavor profiles. This dichotomy typecasts coffees from Latin America as low acidity, less aromatic, and overall simple – whereas coffees from Africa are typecast as bright, complex, and oftentimes aggressive.

This way of thinking is a disservice to both Latin American and East African Coffees as both geographical areas produce an incredible variety of flavor profiles. Let’s dive into the broad flavor profiles of Burundi, Kenya, and Uganda – the three East African countries in which Long Miles is currently producing coffee.

FLAVORS OF BURUNDI

Of course we may be biased, but we believe that top quality lots from Burundi can present some of the most refined and complex coffees found anywhere.

Almost without exception, we find that these coffees tend to have a base reminiscent of black tea (as opposed to the chocolatey-bases found in coffees from some other regions).

The sweetness found in these coffees is comparable to molasses. Never nutty, top quality Burundi lots are defined by their fruited acidity. Some coffees possess distinct citrus and stone fruit character, while others tend toward cooked berries – sometimes even possessing a blackberry/black currant character, though never with the same intensity of acidity as a Kenyan coffee.

FLAVORS OF KENYA

Kenyan coffees exist in a class of their own. Known for their intensity of flavor, incredible sweetness, and bright acidity, coffees from Kenya tend to be favorites amongst coffee professionals.

Their unique structure is primarily related to their acidity. The acidity of a coffee so greatly affects the perceived sweetness of the coffee which, in turn, so greatly affects the perceived mouthfeel. The piquant acidity of a Kenyan coffee makes for a cup that is balanced by all of these characteristics being amplified.

Where does this intensity of flavor come from? There is no easy answer. It is likely an infinitely complex combination of factors including the SL varieties grown, the volcanic soil, the climate and processing – plus so much more.

What is clear, however, is that these are special coffees. Complex fruit characteristics ranging from cooked berries to tropical fruit can be found in the cup and many coffees possess floral aromatics. The most prized lots have a distinct blackberry character that is truly remarkable.

FLAVORS OF UGANDA

Like many coffees produced in the regions surrounding the African Great Lakes, Ugandan coffees tend to have a clear black tea-like base with a sweetness reminiscent of molasses.

The acidity in these coffees can be citric but is typically well integrated into the cup profile in a way that adds structure as opposed to being overt. The best lots we have tasted have a cooked, dark berry character similar to some Kenyan coffees.

March 28, 2022
Where Has The Coffee Gone?

During every single harvest we are faced with unwelcome surprises.

Whether we are blindsided by a drought, a coup attempt, ill-timed rains, a fuel shortage, or a demanding new government policy; we have learned to expect the unexpected. And yet, 2021 has been able to present some challenges that still feel shocking. The 2021 harvest brought three very big surprises in Burundi: a small crop, a new government policy, and unbelievable shipping challenges.

You could say that the small crop should not have been a surprise. It is, after all, the third harvest in a row that has produced dismal yields. That is, however, exactly why it was such a surprise and here’s why.

Twenty-eighteen was a very large harvest in Burundi. Following natural plant cycles, a small harvest in 2019 was expected as it is not uncommon for coffee plants to undergo boom and bust production cycles. Twenty-nineteen ended up being even smaller than expected – much smaller. Twenty-twenty was expected to rebound to a more “normal” production volume. This did not, however, happen. This is very likely due to the shifting climate and the fact that Burundi more or less experienced rain when it typically does not, and did not get rain when it typically does. Much of the coffee on the trees that year went from green to brown without ever having a chance to ripen.

With two low production years under our belts, 2021 was expected to be a year of good volume. The season started very late, and very slow. As coffee cherry trickled into the three Long Miles washing stations, hopes remained high for a year of decent volume as the climate was more or less cooperating.

But, the large volumes simply never came in.

This was, like the prior years, a national phenomenon; all of Long Miles’ neighbors and friends experienced the same thing. Simply put, there was very little coffee. The most heartbreaking statistic we recognized this season is the fact that the 2019, 2020, and 2021 seasons added together, do not match the volume that we produced in 2018 alone.

The second big shock of the year came in the form of a new policy set in place by the Burundi government.

Just as we were in the process of exporting our first container of the year, a new policy made it such that all coffee must be paid in full before it could be loaded into a container.

This may sound small and simple enough, but simply put, it is not how this type of business is/has been done. Getting financial institutions to quickly pivot on how six figure transactions are handled is no easy task. Especially at a time when risk analysts are seemingly much more hesitant than in recent years. We are very grateful to our importing partners who have been able to be nimble and make exceptions to how business is normally done in order to get coffee moving.

Lastly, there is the current state of the shipping industry. Most people are now aware because of the contents of their grocers shelves that shipping and logistics have been a nightmare for the past sixteen months or so. It is no surprise that everyone in coffee exporting/importing has been experiencing these challenges first hand. East Africa, in general – and Burundi, specifically – is never a logistics cakewalk.

Last year, a normal quote from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to New York would be somewhere around $1,200 per container. This year we have seen quotes above $13,000 – and these are not even guaranteed shipments.

Despite these challenges, the quality produced this year was some of our best ever. The first USA-bound container is currently in a bonded warehouse in Dar as Salaam, waiting to be put on a ship. We are moving as quickly as possible to get the next three containers moving, as well.

The next container to move will be heading to Antwerp and the remaining two will go to the States. While most of the coffee is pre-sold, having been committed to partners with long-term agreements and contracts, we welcome you to reach out to david@longmilescoffee.com or info@longmilesscoffee.com to discuss next year and also our Kenya and Uganda offerings. The 2022 harvest flowering (that just took place in Burundi) is looking very promising. Add to this our projects taking off in Kenya and Uganda and we are hopeful that in the very near future we will have more than enough coffee for all of our partners. Please stay with us and please stay in touch.

October 26, 2021
Women in Coffee: Joy Mavugo of the Long Miles Coffee Story Team

Joy joined Long Miles in 2018, and has been an invaluable member of the Story Team ever since. With a background in public health, she uses every opportunity to share what she’s learned with partner farmers while listening to, and finding ways to share their stories.

What is your earliest memory of coffee?

I grew up seeing coffee being ground in our house because it is my dad’s favorite drink, but I had no idea of where coffee came from. In primary school, I learned that in Burundi we have industrial or export crops that brings foreign currency into the country. At that time, it was cotton, tea, and coffee. Something that confused me was hearing that coffee brings foreign currency into the country, meanwhile my dad was buying it in Burundian francs. But, as I was still a child, I didn’t ask.

How and when did you get involved in the coffee industry?

When I heard about Ben and Kristy [Carlson], before meeting them, I had been told that they are in coffee business. In my mind, being in the “coffee business” was the shops where people used to meet for coffee, places like Café Gourmand in Bujumbura, and other places like that. As I mentioned, I didn’t know anything about coffee apart from seeing my dad drink it. I never thought about working in coffee.

In 2016, during coffee harvest, the Carlsons took me with to visit Bukeye Washing Station. There were two things that surprised me that first time visiting a washing station. One, was seeing so many people working there. Second, was seeing cherries. When they told me that it was coffee, the first question that came to mind was, “Are there two kinds of coffee?” This was the comparison I was making between coffee in the cup (the one I used to see my dad drink, and in the coffee shops), and coffee cherries at the selection tables.

There were a couple of reasons that pushed me to work in coffee. Coffee connects different people from different cultures, different countries, and different continents. Coffee is people. This is the reason that I was interested to learn more about coffee, and is something that I am now proud to be a part of. Of course, there are still many, many things to learn in coffee, but at least today I can help somebody to understand coffee out of the cup.

The second reason that pushed me to work in coffee is to help others with my degree in Public Health. I thought maybe there are people who need my help, especially in upcountry Burundi where many people don’t have access to information like they do in the city.

What is your role in the coffee supply chain?

I started working in coffee in 2018. My role is to listen to, collect, and share farmers’ stories. Working in coffee means a lot to me. I am working in the Story Team, and we are in communications. Together, we are helping the world understand the story of coffee: its origin, who grows it, what growing coffee looks like, what a coffee farm is like, what happens to coffee at the washing station, what the next step is after processing it at the washing station…

I don’t use my background in public health every day, but there are always opportunities to do it. I have many examples, but I’ll just share one:

I visited a coffee farmer on Gaharo Hill, and during the interview they explained the challenges farmers face, one of them being malaria. Both her husband and baby were sick with malaria at the time. While she was talking, I saw that in front of her house, there was a small farm of vegetables covered with a mosquito net. During our conversation, I asked why the mosquito net was covering the vegetables. She said that it prevented the chickens from eating the leaves. I asked her if she knows the cause of malaria, to which she replied, “It’s mangoes”. I asked her, why mangoes? “Because many people get malaria when it’s mango season”.

I took the time to explain the actual causes of malaria, that mosquitoes are prevalent during mango season because of the rains during that time of year, and how to prevent malaria. It was a really valuable discussion!

Apart from growing coffee, farmers are growing other crops that are good for their health, but don’t always eat them. Through the interviewing process, I’ve been able to help them to understand the relationship between food and health.

Are there any challenges that you think exclude women from working in coffee?

There are no challenges that exclude women from working in coffee. The problem is the lack of information, or having access to false information. For example, women farmers have repeatedly heard something that’s not true, which is that “coffee is for men”. Other women farmers know that coffee can be prepared as a drink, but don’t know that there are many other things to do in coffee. Sometimes, women in Burundi don’t have enough time to research as men do.

When you consider the coffee industry, do you think that women are empowered to be in leadership and decision-making roles?

In the coffee industry the number of women must be less than men, but those women who are there are empowered to be in leadership and decision-making roles.

Is there anything that you would like to learn or do to further your understanding of how coffee is produced or processed?

I would like to improve my photography skills, and how to share information on social media.

September 30, 2021
Long Miles x Leaderboard Coffee

Image by Julianna Stallings

Earlier this past summer, Grant Gamble of Culture Coffee Project reached out to us asking if we would like to contribute to a new project that he had somewhat recently launched with Suneal Pabari. Seasoned pros, Grant has put on countless well-known and well-attended coffee events, and Suneal is one of the founders of The Roasters Pack. Fittingly, their brainchild, Leaderboard Coffee, is a coffee subscription- of sorts. Yes, it is a curated selection of ten unlabelled (intended to be tasted blind) coffees you receive in the mail, but Leaderboard has the look and feel of a coffee event- a really fun and educational one at that.

Designed for both coffee enthusiasts and coffee professionals, Leaderboard, “…believe[s] that learning about coffee should be fun, not intimidating.” While receiving ten unlabelled coffees to taste side-by-side is a hugely educational process in itself, Suneal and Grant have gone even further. Firstly, they have created a quiz that has an interface based on the concept of a “real-life-video-game,” and secondly, they have connected with coffee professionals around the globe to create content that helps the players of Leaderboard better identify the coffees they are tasting.

“…learning about coffee should be fun, not intimidating.”

It was for this reason that Grant reached out to us. Ben Carlson, co-founder of Long Miles, along with David Stallings, who handles Roaster Relations for Long Miles, together created a thirty-three minute long video for Leaderboard. In the video, Ben dives into the history of coffee production in Burundi, and David talks about tasting coffees from the Great Lakes region of East Africa, generally and Burundi coffee, more specifically.

Watch the video below, and definitely check out Leaderboard! If you are interested in expanding your coffee palate and learning more about coffee producing countries, processing methods, coffee varieties, and more, Leaderboard is an amazing and fun resource!

Burundi Deep Dive with David Stallings & Ben Carlson of Long Miles Coffee Project
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September 24, 2021
Women in Coffee: Aline, Assistant Manager of Coffee Quality Control

Growing up, Aline didn’t know that one day she would work in the coffee sector in Burundi. She joined the Long Miles team back in 2014 as a supervisor of the teams hand-picking parchment coffee for defects. Now, Aline is the Assistant Manager of Coffee Quality Control at Bukeye Washing Station.

What is your earliest memory of coffee?

When I heard about the Long Miles Washing Station on Gaharo hill, I decided to ask if they had a job for me. I had no idea of what happens at a coffee washing station, and didn’t know anything about processing coffee. At the time, the washing station manager told me that there were no jobs for women, that there were only jobs for men. I asked him to give me a chance working there so that he could see that I was capable of learning. After a month, he appreciated how I worked and he offered me a full-time job.

What is your role in the coffee supply chain?

When I started out, I was in charge of supervising the hand-picking team. Now, I am the Assistant Manager of Coffee Quality Control at Bukeye Washing Station.

What does a ‘’typical day’’ look like for you?

During coffee harvest, I do the same thing: control the steps that coffee goes through, especially during the hand-picking stage at the cherry selection tables.

What does working in coffee mean for you?

It’s proof that women , especially in the rural areas of Burundi, are as capable of working in coffee as men.

Are there any challenges that you think exclude women from working in coffee?

I think that the challenges for some women- not just those working in the coffee sector- is that they are working mothers. Working at night can be a big challenge. I think that this is the reason why men say that women are not able to work in coffee, but for me it’s not a question of being able but how many responsibilities a woman has to take on.

When you consider the coffee industry, do you think that women are empowered to be in leadership and decision-making roles?

In the organization that I work for, a woman has the same place as a man. Gender is respected. There are women representatives in all the teams, and they can make decisions in their roles.

Is there anyone in the coffee industry who inspires you?

I don’t know yet.

Is there anything that you would like to learn or do to further your understanding of coffee?

Working in the coffee sector has given me the opportunity of learning many things. I can even teach others what I’ve learnt. In Burundi, there is no school for teaching you about coffee, but working in coffee is a lesson in itself. You can learn as you work. I have learnt about coffee quality, from cherry to parchment, but I still need to learn more about coffee quality from parchment to cup.

September 17, 2021

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