There are women farming coffee on Gikungere hill who are tearing down the walls that were once built up around them.
“GROWING UP, WE WERE TOLD THAT EVERY BOY MUST ONE DAY HAVE A PIECE OF LAND TO PLANT COFFEE FOR HIS FUTURE FAMILY. BUT NOT US GIRLS. WE WOULD SOON BE MARRIED, A PART OF ANOTHER FAMILY.”
It was around noon when we met with the members of Dushigikirigiterwa C’ikawa (translated from Kirundi as “Let’s support the coffee crop”) women’s association. If they hadn’t been spending their afternoon with us, then they would have been out working in their families’ fields.
There are a couple of planting seasons in Burundi, each one aligning with the wet months. February and March mark the start of the country’s second planting season. Every day during these months you’ll find most farmers weeding, mulching, and preparing the soil to plant potatoes, climbing peas, and string beans.
We sat together, sharing thoughts on what it means to be a woman in coffee. We heard women speak their own truths on the value that they bring to their families; the value that they bring to each of their communities. We also talked about the change that they still want to see for women on Gikungere hill.
“If you compare now to the time when we were growing up, so many things have changed for us. Girls are going to school. There are women in government. A woman can now talk freely in meetings where men are present. There are not many separations of tasks. Before, building a house was considered to be ‘a man’s job’. Now, a woman can help her husband to build their family’s house. She can build a fence. We both have hands. We can both do the work. Our skills only improve by working together.”
But in coffee they say they still want to see change.
“WE’RE STILL TREATED LIKE CHILDREN. WE DON’T GET A SAY IN HOW THE MONEY WE EARN FROM COFFEE IS SPENT. WE WANT TO BE RECOGNIZED AS ADULTS; AS COFFEE PRODUCERS.”
Together these incredible women are learning how to support each other and earn money on their own terms, in their own way. They’re currently saving money to buy a piece of land together, with the hope of planting coffee trees. With this money, they say, comes freedom. The ability to contribute towards their families instead of always asking their husbands for money.
“WE USED TO HEAR ABOUT WOMEN’S DAY ON THE RADIO, BUT DIDN’T KNOW WHY WE WERE CELEBRATING IT. NOW, WE’RE CELEBRATING WHAT WOMEN HAVE ACCOMPLISHED.”
Long Miles Coffee Scout Leader, Asterie, picking coffee cherries alongside coffee farmer Marceline.
Sitting among these women was a powerful reminder of what a united community looks like. With the build of Ninga Washing Station happening so close to Gikungere hill, we’re looking forward to having more conversations like this one.
“The change we want to see has to come from each of us. We need to be the example for other hills. We’re going to make change for other women who don’t know that they can.”
We’re often asked the question, “What does a ‘typical day’ in the life of Long Miles Coffee look like?”
The truth? It depends on when you ask. Although coffee harvest only happens once a year in Burundi and usually lasts around three months (sometimes more), growing and producing coffee is a year-round effort. On any given day of the week, the Long Miles team could be spread out between the country’s capital, or upcountry at our washing stations where coffee is grown. For the thousands of smallholder coffee farmers that we work with, a “typical day” is completely different from our own. The time that coffee farmers in Burundi spend on farming activities is divided between a multitude of crops, not just focused on coffee.
Here’s a glimpse at what an “average” year in the life of Long Miles Coffee in Burundi looks like:
JANUARY-FEBRUARY
It’s the beginning of the year. The country is experiencing “impeshi”, which translated from Kirundi (the local language spoken in Burundi) means “small dry season”. Depending on the area and soil structure, farmers are planting a variety of crops in this season, especially beans, potatoes, and peas. If coffee farmers have access to insecticides, they will be spraying them on their coffee trees as well as weeding their coffee farms. Some will even start pruning their coffee trees.
January is usually the time that our head of Production and Quality Control, Seth Nduwayo, leads our annual Coffee Quality and Production Training. It’s also the time when we start preparing the annual calendar for our social and environmental impact projects: PIP (Integrated Farm Plan), Farmer Field School, Trees For Kibira, and Womxn and Youth Empowerment Programs.
Joy Mavugo from the Story team connecting with a partner coffee farmer.
The Story team, lead by Joy Mavugo, is out in the coffee hills, connecting with coffee farmers to hear their thoughts in the weeks that prelude coffee harvest. Most importantly, this is when we start applying for our annual production license- something that coffee producers in Burundi must do at the start of each year. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to open our washing stations for cherry collection or begin processing the first coffees of the season.
Every week, the Long Miles Coffee Scouts are visiting each of the hills that we collect coffee from, checking on the health of our own coffee farms, meeting with Farmer Field School team members and teaching best agricultural practices, making note of the visible effects of climate change in the coffee hills, keeping a record of the number of antestia caught, distributing and planting seedlings from our Trees For Kibira nurseries. To diversify our coffee farms, our team at Heza Washing Station is maintaining the handbuilt cowsheds and laying down new fodder for our two mama cows and their calves.
Together with our washing station managers and production teams, the Coffee Scout leaders are also holding meetings with community development officers and partner coffee farmers, hearing from them if there were any challenges or issues during the previous coffee harvest and discussing ways to resolve this before the upcoming coffee harvest.
MARCH-JUNE
The country is experiencing its biggest rainy season of the year. The coffee cherries are red, ripening, and ready to be picked. The antestiabug (the insect thought to be linked to the Potato Taste Defect) thrives during this time because the cherries are soft and sweet, making it easier for the bug to bore holes into the cherry skins. Farmers are scouting for these bugs in their coffee trees and if they find them, are removing them by hand.
The end of March usually marks the opening of coffee harvest in Burundi, and coffee farmers will spend most of their days hand-picking cherries then walking to deliver them to the nearest washing station or collection point. Generally, other crops aren’t planted in this season because coffee is on everyone’s mind.
April and May roll around, and coffee harvest is in full swing. It’s one of the busiest times of year for our team. The Coffee Scouts spend their days between guiding coffee farmers through selective cherry picking on their farms and at the washing stations or collection points, assisting with farmer reception and cherry quality control. Our team also works alongside our partner coffee farmers, harvesting cherries from the Long Miles Coffee Farms. Each delivery of cherry is processed, either as a fully washed, natural, or honey-processed coffees, and left to dry on raised drying tables.
The Story team spends these weeks following our team’s activities, connecting with coffee farmers on their farms, and documenting their harvest, or at the washing stations following the production of coffee.
This is usually the time that we get to welcome our roasting partners in Burundi to experience a slice of coffee harvest, see coffee in production, connect with our team and partner coffee farmers, and join us around the cupping table to taste a selection of fresh crop coffees.
JULY-AUGUST
The start of July usually signals that coffee harvest is coming to a close in Burundi. Most of the parchment coffee is either off the tables or about to come off. Our washing stations no longer receive coffee cherries, and our team’s focus shifts to the dry mill.
Our Production and Quality team at the dry mill is focused on constructing micro-lots and preparing coffees for export. They are regularly sending samples to our Long Miles Coffee lab, where hundreds of cups of coffee are cupped, analysed, and scored by our team before being sent as samples to our roasting partners the world over. This work starts in July and continues until the end of the year.
The country-wide coffee pruning campaign officially opens, and the Coffee Scouts are helping coffee farmers to identify which coffee trees should be pruned or stumped. All around farm maintenance is happening at the same time: weeding, applying organic fertilizers, and mulching the ground to keep it moist during the upcoming dry season.
At the helm of our Social and Environmental Impact Leader, Epa Ndikumana, the Coffee Scouts are also collecting samples of soil for testing, and analysing the benefits of intercropping banana trees with coffee on our coffee farms. Our Story team is there to capture it all: the dry mill, the post-harvest activities, and most importantly, farmer payments.
Farmer Payday is the one day of the year when all of the coffee farming communities that we work with receive payment for the coffee cherries that they delivered to us during harvest season. The money that most farmers earn from growing coffee is spent on their children’s school tuition and supplies, home repairs, and investing in other income-earning projects. In the weeks leading up to payday, our team works hard behind the scenes, counting money and preparing each farmer’s payment. Hill by hill, each farmer that we work with is paid for every kilogram of coffee cherry that they delivered to a Long Miles Washing Station or collection point.
SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER
The country is experiencing “agatas”, which translated from Kirundi means “small rainy season”. These are the months that are considered the main planting season in Burundi. Whatever farmers choose to grow is planted at this time.
The mature coffee trees start to flower- depending on the amount of rainfall in the country- and the coffee cherries are in the early stages of developing. This is the time for coffee farmers to be maintaining their coffee nurseries, planting new coffee trees, and weeding their plantations. Those who have access to lime and fertilizer will start applying it on their coffee farms.
The coffees at the dry mill continue to be milled, bagged, and processed before being loaded onto trucks and headed to our roasting partners across the world.
Meanwhile, the Coffee Scouts are evaluating the growth and survival rate of the Trees For Kibira seedlings in the nurseries. As the year comes to a close, a bonus payment is made to the coffee farmers who delivered high quality cherries throughout the season.
There’s no short way of answering the question, “What does a ‘typical day’ look like for you?” No matter the year, there’s no small amount of words to share with you what producing coffee in Burundi looks like for our team. As we write this, the coffee cherries have already started to ripen, rain has fallen, and our team has started preparing for the upcoming harvest season. We can’t wait to share what this year holds with you!
Coffee has a storied history in Burundi. It was introduced to the country in the 1920s under Belgian colonial rule. By the early 1930s, all of the farmers in the country were given coffee seedlings and forced to cultivate them with very little resources, support, or compensation to do so.
“I started growing coffee when Burundi was still colonized by the Belgians. During that time growing coffee was very different compared to today. First of all, we were growing coffee by force. Sometimes, we were even beaten. We had no idea of what we were doing. What I remember is that they [Belgian colonizers] used to tell us that we must cultivate coffee, because it will help us in the future.” – Charles Ntandikiye, 83-year-old farmer from Gaharo hill.
“First of all, we were growing coffee by force.”
Shortly after the country’s independence in 1962, the coffee sector was privatized. But by 1972, the government had regained control over it. In 1993, the country’s first set of democractic elections took place and the first president was voted into power. Not long after that, the president was assassinated during an attempted coup d’état. The weeks that followed this were marked by civil war and violence; a rebel campaign encouraging farmers to rip out their coffee trees to destabilize the economy. Many people- both in the city and in the rural parts of the country- fled from their land, seeking safer regions elsewhere in Burundi or crossing the borders into neighboring Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some stayed where they were the entire time.
Those who did eventually return often came back only to find that their land had been displaced or claimed by someone else. Since then, the coffee sector has slowly been returning to its previously privatized state.
“Although I started cultivating coffee by force, I didn’t stop when the Belgians left the country because I realized that what they had told us was true. I have seen the benefits of the coffee crop in my family’s life. When I’ve gotten money from coffee, I’ve paid for school fees, bought clothes, and paid my workers. I will cultivate coffee for the rest of my life.”
“I will cultivate coffee for the rest of my life.”
Charles Ntandikiye, a Burundian coffee farmer, stands amongst his coffee trees.
Not all farmers feel the same way as Charles does. Over the years, we’ve heard many reports from farmers that they’ve since ripped out the coffee trees from their farms and planted beans or potatoes instead. When your introduction to growing coffee was by force and its history stained by political instability and conflict, it’s understandably hard to be passionate about growing it.
But, the Long Miles Coffee Scouts are working to see this change.
The Long Miles Coffee Scouts walking to visit Farmer Field School team members on their farms.
Together with Epa Ndikumana, Social and Environmental Impact Leader at Long Miles, the Coffee Scouts have formed Farmer Field Schools (FFS). Why? To equip any interested farmers with the resources, support, or encouragement that they need to continue growing coffee.
The only criteria for becoming a FFS team member is this: you must be a coffee farmer.
Before starting the first field school, the Coffee Scouts held a meeting on each of the hills that we collect coffee from, asking the coffee farming communities in these regions if they were interested in creating model coffee farms. Those who wanted to join were trained in best agricultural practices and every week since then have been meeting up on a host coffee farm.
Gervais Ngendabanka, a Bukeye Farmer Field School team member, about to prune his coffee trees.
Together, they get stuck in helping with the farming activities that need to be done on the host farm that day: from planting to pruning, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, mulching, scouting for antestia bugs, and restoring soil health. It’s not just the Farmer Field School team members who can take part; anyone from the farming community can join them to observe, ask questions, share ideas, problem-solve, and learn from what’s happening on these host farms.
“I started growing coffee in 1995, but I only started pruning my trees five years ago when I heard about it from the Coffee Scouts. Pruning is very important! It has helped to increase the quantity of cherries my coffee trees produce. I’ve also heard that it increases the quality of the coffee, but I don’t know much about that. Pruning is also hard because you have to wait three years until the trees start producing cherries again.” – Odule Manirakiza, Bukeye FFS team member from Gaharo hill.
A group of Farmer Field School team members from Bukeye.
Since the first field school started back in 2015, the team members have planted coffee trees, nitrogen-fixing plants, green manures, a mix of indigenous plants, and shade trees on their farms. Between 2015-2017, the 287 FFS members spread between Bukeye and Heza Washing Station have doubled their yield of coffee cherry production. The Bukeye FFS team members have seen an increase in yield of coffee cherry from 1kg to 2.1kg per tree, while the Heza FFS team members have seen an increase from 1.5kg to 3kg per tree.
Unfortunately, in 2019, there was a noticeable decline in the FFS team members’ cherry production due to the limited access to fertilizer in the country, and the compounding effect of climate change.
Selectively hand-picking coffee cherries.
During the peak of coffee harvest in Burundi, the FFS team members usually only meet once a week on a host farm to learn how to selectively hand-pick, float, and sort coffee cherries at home before delivering them to the nearest Long Miles Washing Station. In 2020, it was observed that because most of the FFS team members had developed these practices, they didn’t need to spend any unnecessary time at our washing stations re-sorting their cherries for quality.
Up until now, these FFS lots have been processed together with the ~5,500 farming families who deliver to our Long Miles Washing Stations. 2020 was the first year that we’ve collected and processed FFS lots separately to see if the team members’ training and collective efforts have also made a difference in the quality of their coffee on the cupping table.
According to our quality assurance team, at 86.5, the average cup score for FFS lots was almost exactly the same as the average cup score for non-FFS lots. A statistic that stood out as markedly different, however, was the percentage of lots that were not deemed to be micro-lot quality. When our team scores day lots, they need to make a fairly quick assessment of a large number of coffees. For our purposes, the most important quality cutoff point is 86. Coffees that score below 86 points get blended into our “Hills” lots. Coffees that score above 86 get sold as micro-lot quality. Of the non-FFS lots produced in 2020, ~19% did not meet our quality standards to be sold as micro-lot quality coffee. For FFS lots, however, this number was only ~17%. While two percent is small, it is not statistically insignificant as it represents hundreds of pounds of finished green coffee.
However, if we were to focus solely on the improvement of a coffee’s cup score as the main outcome of FFS, we would fall short of the very reason for its existence. Farmer Field School is not just about growing quality Burundi coffee; it’s about the practice of showing up every week. It’s a commitment from farmers to learn from, listen to, and exchange ideas with each other on which farming practices are most effective. It’s about asking questions like, “Have the farming practices we use made a notable impact on the productivity of our coffee trees; on the biodiversity of our coffee farms; on soil health?”
Partially stumped coffee tree.
Although the idea of running a Farmer Field School was initiated by Epa and facilitated by the Coffee Scouts, the farmers involved have taken full ownership of the field school and its activities.
“In 2017, I stumped all of the coffee trees on my farm. Then, in 2020, I harvested double the yield of cherry that I used to get before pruning. The Coffee Scouts have helped me to understand the different ways of taking care of my coffee farms. I remember the first time they told me to stump my coffee trees, because they are old. In my heart I was thinking, “These young people don’t know what they’re saying. Cutting down coffee trees? No way!” But now, I’m encouraging other farmers to do the same thing.” – Firmin Niyibizi, Bukeye FFS team member from Gaharo hill.
In my heart I was thinking, “These young people don’t know what they’re saying. Cutting down coffee trees? No way!”
Farmer Field School has encouraged these communities to continue growing coffee; to not give up hope despite the incredible challenges that they have faced in the past and may continue to face in the future. It has also empowered the communities of coffee farmers we partner with to work together in teams rather than in isolation; to continue to share ideas and use the farming practices that are most effective in improving the productivity of Burundi coffee.
Lately, the thought of sitting down to reflect on the past year has felt like an overwhelming task. What really happened to 2020? It goes without saying that last year was unlike any other. For us, 2020 held challenges that were unique to the season and challenges that aren’t all that ‘unprecedented’ when it comes to producing coffee.
The year started off much like any other. Our team worked alongside our neighboring coffee farming communities, preparing coffee farms for the opening of the coffee season and expectant for a harvest better than the previous one. Everything seemed to be on track until the Burundian national coffee board announced a sudden change in regulations.
In order to qualify for an annual production licence, coffee producers were required to have 75% of their forecasted crop in the bank [to be held in trust to pay farmers]. Coming off the backend of a harvest where 25% of the country’s normal export was produced, having these funds in advance was unreasonable for most producers- ourselves included. If any coffee producers were unable to comply with the new regulations, they would lose their washing station(s) along with the permission to produce coffee ever again.
Scrambling to comply in time while the threat of a derailed harvest hung in the air made for a hard couple of months, but thankfully we were able to find a way. Then came the news of how rapidly the virus was spreading across the globe. Neighboring East African countries quickly plunged into strict lockdowns and the Burundi airport shut down. It was the first time in a long time that we had to ask visitors not to travel to Burundi for coffee harvest.
All things considered, there was still a lot of beauty and joy found in harvest. The coffee trees continued to fruit and ripen. With hand-washing stations and social distancing in place, we were able to keep the washing stations open for cherry delivery. We celebrated from both near and far with members of our team as they welcomed babies into the world, got married, and as their families grew. We were able to pay coffee farmers on time for their hard work this season! Coffee was exported from Burundi faster than ever before. We continued with the build of Ninga, our third Long Miles Washing Station. Long Miles Kenya was launched, and we saw our first inaugural coffee harvest season in Kirinyaga County, Mount Kenya take place. The seed has been planted and preparations are now underway for the formal launch of Long Miles Uganda.
The year was certainly marked by hardship, loss and a specific set of words constantly strung together. “Unprecedented.” “Uncertainty.” “New normal.” It was also a year marked by bravery and courage; community and connection. Thank you for standing alongside us; for continuing to support Long Miles Coffee.
What lies ahead for us.
In 2017, Ben was sitting with a group of people at The Pulley Collective and an esteemed presenter proclaimed, “There is no sustainable coffee in the world.” Ben was speaking right after him about the hope we see in Burundi coffee, but he approached the stage with the wind out of his sails thinking, “Is it really possible to create a sustainable coffee company?” Ever since that day our company has been combating the harsh realities of coffee’s future with visions of hope. And in 2020, not only was the future of coffee challenged, but the human race’s future as well. It’s been a tough time to keep hoping, but also an impossible time not to grip onto the ship of hope with everything we’ve got.
Here’s how we plan to keep hope alive in 2021:
A coffee farm in Kenya. We hope to start one. And that’s it for now.
This year we started a pilot project in Kenya and we have loved the results. We hope to continue this project and expand it in 2021.
We hope to build a community washing station and a model coffee farm in Uganda.
We hope to fully open our Ninga Washing Station in Burundi. It has taken three years for us to get government approval for this washing station. Farmers who currently spend hours walking to the Bukeye Washing Station will have their livelihoods vastly improved by the presence of the Ninga Washing Station. With a keen focus on coffee quality, we will be using newly designed sealable fermentation silos, one of the newest approaches to coffee fermentation.
We have plans for the expansion of Trees For Kibira, our reforestation and environmental impact program, within both Burundi and Kenya.
An additional founder’s hope is that we live out of a place of thriving, and support our team to do the same. We are not speaking about a place of great excess, but we have often lived in a place of survival only, cutting all expenses and depending on unreliable pre-financing methods to pay farmers and scrape by. While this can be an efficient way to produce coffee, the instability and stress of it doesn’t always honour the people on our team who work so hard to grow, produce, export and sell this product that we all love so much. We hold a deep belief that the only way to make coffee truly sustainable is to honour the value chain and everyone in it.
How do you plan to keep hope alive in 2021? We’d love to hear from you.
written by Ben Carlson, co-founder of Long Miles Coffee.
When Kristy and I started Long Miles Coffee we never dreamed of doing anything beyond producing coffee outside the small village of Bukeye in the high mountains of Burundi. Ten years after our first days in Burundi we find ourselves with three washing stations in Burundi and fresh into the inaugural season of Long Miles Kenya.
Long Miles Kenya is a four year old idea that really started to become a dream and vision for Long Miles Coffee over the past couple years. As COVID gripped the world, I really didn’t see the possibility of our Kenya launch. What I didn’t account for was our Kenyan partner, Haron Wachira, and his capacity and organizational ability to accelerate our vision into reality.
Down the road I’ll share more about how and why we started Long Miles Kenya as well as how we elected to do so in the epicenter of what is Kenya’s finest growing area on the slope of Mount Kenya in central Kenya. What I want to share here is what we have found as we launched into production.
I really wanted to see just how much SL 28 and 34 were still on the slopes of the mountain. On my last exploratory trips, I’ve found Batian and Ruiru being pushed hard on farmers across Kenya. While those Hybrids are quite good, they don’t have the “wow” factor that many in the speciality coffee world have come to love and desire in Kenyan coffee that we find in the SL varieties.
I had our washing station separate two lots from our Kirinyaga farm and also two lots from the neighbors we are leasing land from to produce our micro-lots. These lots will represent our launch into Kenyan coffee and showcase the difference between the Hybrids ands SLs.
Kristy Carlson, co-founder of Long Miles photographing farmers delivering cherries to the coffee factory.
Kristy and I are visiting our different neighbors and hearing their story of life and coffee. What we’ve heard is person after person frustrated with the price they are getting for their coffee. For all the $3-5 cups of Kenyan coffee they hear about being consumed around the world they continue to struggle to even maintain the price they were receiving ten years ago. On top of this, labour prices have increased for harvesting and maintaining the coffee and inputs have drastically increased in cost. “Why keep producing coffee?” many ask. Us working alongside these neighbors to harvest and produce coffee this season gives them some hope and it doesn’t impact their neighbors, they tell me. “How sustainable is coffee in Kenya when only a handful of us receive a better price and help?” And then I request more SL coffee… and I’m taken into the fields and shown the difference between the hybrids and the SL plots. The Hybrids are heavy with cherry and have no noticeable fungus, bugs or issues. The disappearing SL plots are producing half as much and suffering with fungus, insect damage, and CBD (Coffee Berry Disease). If quality in the cup isn’t rewarded to the farmers, I fully understand why we are going to see the end of any SL coffee from Kenya.
The Carlsons visiting neighbors Joyce and Ephantus on their organic SL34 coffee farm. Masks were vigilantly worn during the visit and only removed for this photo.
And yet…there is hope for the SL. If we didn’t see it, I would have to call it a myth or legend. Farmer Joseph has invited us to see his organic SL farm. He’s not one of our neighbors so we are not producing coffee with him, but his story is too unreal not to take a drive to see him. Joseph is harvesting 100kg of cherry per tree (no, this isn’t a typo) and it’s fully organic! We are taking notes and listing the protocols needed to achieve this, and as we wrap up harvest in year one of Long Miles Kenya you can be sure that we are going to be implementing the same strategy as Joseph did to produce his 100kg SL harvest.
I don’t have the space or time to dive into production and quality compromises we have observed in the surrounding factories. What I can say is that with Seth and Raphael coming in from Burundi, and Jimmy arriving for us from Uganda, we are helping implement quality control procedures that we use in Burundi along with an excellent and dedicated management team in place under Haron. Our first taste from the first day’s harvest just happened and all that I can say is that I hope this initial harvest can all taste this good. If it does, my hopes for some of Kenya’s finest coffee will be coming out of Long Miles Kenya washing station.
Cultivating Connection With Coffee Farmers Through Cameras
The coffee farmers we work with have always been central to who we are, but until 2017 their stories were always filtered and shared by me- an outsider looking in. We began Long Miles thinking we knew what farmers needed, but could we really know if we never experienced life through their eyes? In the first years of Long Miles we were so absorbed in the challenges of building a business in Burundi that we didn’t slow down enough to consider this.
Milda conducting the first round of Before + Now in 2017
Milda with Before + Now participant Dorothy
In early 2017 a PhD candidate named Milda Rosenberg changed that. She came from Norway to intern with us in Burundi and she brought with her some cameras. Her goal was to give cameras to coffee farmers so that she could learn more about what they valued and their challenges. I had never heard of this approach and was really intrigued. In her months with us, we overwhelmed Milda with all sorts of young start up company needs, “Fire up our Instagram account!” “Help with farmer pay-day!” “Take the truck and wait in line for fuel!” “Photograph harvest!” Milda ended up handing out the cameras to farmers when she had just a few weeks remaining in Burundi. Despite the truncated time table, the results of her project opened our eyes to a new way of connecting and thinking. After Milda left, I was determined to carry on the project and in 2018 we re-launched it.
Once we began we got glimpses into farmers’ everyday lives, which felt like sacred ground. It was such an honor to meet newborn babies, attend funerals, and learn to love their sons and daughters through their photographs. Our team sat for hours on small wooden village benches hearing important stories and digesting meaningful photographs. Images of devastating rains wiping away valuable coffee trees were sandwiched between pictures of smiling children and church services- a testament to the complexity of life. We learned new things about how farmers approach the painstaking and time consuming acts of caring for, harvesting, and transporting coffee.
Forty farmers, twenty from Bukeye and twenty from Heza, participated in Before + Now. This is such a small amount of what they photographed and had to say- but it’s a start in sharing the beauty of their lives and perspectives.
We met Antoine standing barefoot on his farm, surrounded by coffee trees. At fifty-four years old, he’s no stranger to farming coffee. As a young boy, he helped his parents on their farm by collecting leaves for mulch and learned how to prune and stump coffee trees. Since then, there have been significant changes for coffee farmers in Burundi- not all good. ⠀
“Thirty years ago, the soil was good. Even without fertilizer or mulch, our production was enough. Now, the soil is not good. We have to work hard to find mulch and our production is low without fertilizer. We use fertilizer from the government but sometimes it comes late and when it’s late, it cannot feed the coffee trees’ roots.”
Back in 2011, before Long Miles was founded, the coffee farming communities that we were interested in working with were producing less than half a kilogram of coffee cherries per tree. Although it’s not the only solution to improve soil health and productivity, we quickly realized that having access to fertilizer could significantly impact farmers’ annual coffee production and income.
In Burundi, however, fertilizer is a state-controlled product that is only accessible through the national coffee board. One has to apply and pay for fertilizer in advance- something that most subsistence farmers in Burundi can’t afford to do. That first year we put down an advance on fertilizer for the communities that we were working with, but it soon became apparent that there was no guarantee it would arrive in time for the coffee season; no guarantee there would be enough for everyone who needed it.
“Since then, there have been significant changes for coffee farmers in Burundi- not all good.”
By the time the fertilizer did arrive, the rainy season had just begun. Any fertilizer that was used on farmers’ land washed away with the rain, eventually running off into local water sources. It was incredibly frustrating for our team to stand by and watch this happen. Coffee farmers in Burundi have, for years, been paying for a fertilizer that is delivered too little too late to be useful. This realization was the turning point for our decision to “go organic”. By doing so, we could take control of how we address farming challenges and tackle soil health in a way that could be all-inclusive and better for the environment.
Step onto a coffee farm in Burundi and you may take note that coffee farmers are already using organic practices: homemade compost made from leftover coffee cherry skins and animal waste is fed to the soil, stacks of grass and leaves are collected by hand and placed as mulch around farmers’ crops. These commonly found ‘organic practices’ are not always done by choice, but because of farmers’ limited access to farming inputs.
According to the World Bank, eighty percent of Burundi’s 11.6 million population is employed by the agriculture sector (World Bank, 2020). 600,000 of those 11.6 million households are coffee farmers, which means that one in twenty people depend on coffee in Burundi (African Fine Coffees Association, 2020).
“…one in twenty people depend on coffee in Burundi.”
What would an intentional shift towards organic farming look like in Burundi? Some might argue that not much will change. With limited access to fertilizer, insecticides, and pesticides, smallholder coffee farmers will continue using natural resources and finding innovative ways to source the inputs that they need. On the other hand, a farmer’s cost of production may increase with no guarantee that the practice will pay off; a risk that coffee farmers need to ensure they can afford to take.
As coffee producers, we also need to turn our attention to the policies at the country-level. There is currently an ‘agricultural intensification policy’ that is focused on increasing the country’s crop and food production. The government’s expectations of this policy coupled with smallholder farmers’ ability to source the necessary farming inputs may limit their ability to shift towards organic farming practices.
“What would an intentional shift towards organic farming look like in Burundi?”
Is it worth the risk? An organic certification wouldn’t change the quality of the coffee we produce, and it wouldn’t necessarily mean that coffee can be sold at higher prices. The average Burundian coffee producer might get paid more if they sell their coffee on the commodity market, but we’re not producing commodity coffee; we’re producing specialty coffee. As Epaphras Ndikumana, our Social & Environmental Impact Leader points out, “Most of the coffee produced in Burundi is sold as commodity coffee so whenever there’s potential to scale up a coffee farmer’s profit, it is worth it.”
“Long Miles is not necessarily going to recoup the cost that it takes to get a certification- that’s not the motivating factor. The motivation behind our pursuit of organic farming is so that future generations of coffee farmers in Burundi can farm coffee sustainably.”
Ben Carlson, co-founder of Long Miles Coffee.
We’ve recently heard from coffee producers in Honduras, Brazil, and Colombia that shifting to organic farming is yet to pay off for coffee farmers. Knowing that the transition to organic can take years, if not decades, is it worthwhile considering “going organic” in Burundi?
“If you’re talking about one farmer? Yes. If you’re talking about thousands of coffee farming families who haven’t officially farmed organically before? Again, yes, but it’s a long-term investment.”
Getting all 5,500 coffee farmers that we work with within Burundi certified would be incredibly costly and would require a significant amount of inputs. Even then, it would be hard to control every person’s activities to make sure that their actions maintain the integrity of the organic certification.
“For us, it’s not about the certificate; it’s about farmers having the inputs and knowledge to farm organically themselves. It’s worthwhile pursuing if we want to work in other coffee-growing regions, which we do. Long Miles will be producing coffee at a Kenyan washing station this year. We are also starting an organic coffee farm in Kenya, and would like to start one in Uganda too.”
As coffee producers, we can see the value of shifting to organic farming practices, but is buying and drinking organic coffee important to end-consumers?
“From my experience as a high-end specialty coffee roaster and retailer, organic certification matters to the consumer but not enough to make decisions based on the organic certification. I would classify it as a value add, a bonus to drinking delicious coffee which seems to be the higher priority. While certifications clearly matter to a percentage of consumers it does not seem to be the main driver for customers outside of higher priorities like flavor, origin, price, location of the retailer.”
Oliver Stormshak, co-owner, CEO and Green Coffee Buyer of Olympia Coffee
Our transition towards organic farming is moving at a slower pace than a certification calls for. We’re listening to and learning from the communities of coffee farming families that we work with, along with coffee producers in other nations who have gone before us to determine the feasibility of producing organic coffee. Long Miles’ pursuit of organic farming is a long-term commitment to empowering future generations of coffee farmers with the knowledge and inputs that they need to produce coffee sustainably. With Burundi as our base, we’ll be able to take what we’ve learned to start producing organic coffee in other parts of East Africa too.
collected and translated by Joy Mavugo in conjunction with Robyn-Leigh van Laren from the Long Miles Story team
There was much rejoicing at the Long Miles Coffee Washing Stations recently as farmer payday took place. Payday is always one heavy with anticipation, excitement, and chaos of the happiest kind. It’s the one day of the year when all of the coffee farming families that we work with receive payment for the coffee cherries that they delivered during harvest season.
“ Payment day is a special day. It’s a day of building trust between a farmer and a buyer.”
– Honorate Dugunya, a coffee farmer from Ninga hill.
In the days leading up to it, our team works hard behind the scenes filling every person’s envelope with the season’s earnings and preparing for one big reunion with the coffee farming communities that we work with. This year, payday may have looked different from how it usually does but our team is unwaveringly grateful that it took place. We also celebrated a milestone; making our first set of payments at the newly built Ninga Washing Station site.
“To have a washing station on Ninga hill is like a country that fought for independence and got it. I will always celebrate this victory.No one will take it from us.”
– Paul Ntahondi, a coffee farmer from Ninga hill
There is an endless list of things that we are thankful for this harvest season. Paying every single coffee farmer that we work with is one of them.
From the Farm
written by Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager for Long Miles Coffee
Frequently, I have referred to rain as a big challenge. We could lack it when it was expected and vice versa. For three months, from July to September, there was no rain as it was a dry season. Now we are at the end of September. October is knocking from the horizon. We have experienced some rain yet at Bujumbura and sometimes at Gitega, Budeca, where we took our coffee for dry milling. As coffee is not out on drying beds you may wonder why the blessing (rain) is evoked again as a challenge. In fact, the rain comes with cold weather, and humidity increases in warehouses. Thus, when the relative humidity is higher than that of coffee in storage, the latter start regaining moisture. As you can hear this, the end of one battle opens a door to the next. So, today we fight for having all the remaining lots milled, hand-picked, and sealed in Grain-pro as soon as possible. When all coffee is in Grain-pro, then we don’t have to worry about rainfall the same as before. This is the battle we will be fighting over the next couple of weeks.
From the Lab
written by David Stallings, Roaster Relations for Long Miles Coffee
This week we began our final dry-milling program for the Burundi season. Milling, which involves removing the parchment layer, or, in the case of naturally processed coffee, removing the fruit that has dried around the coffee seed, is, by itself, a speedy process. After the seeds are stripped of their botanical accouterment, they pass through various grading apparatuses. These include devices that separate the seeds by size, density, and color. Many metric tons of coffee can pass through the mill in a single day. The process that follows, however, is low tech and time-consuming. That process is, of course, the handpicking of the coffee. Absolutely critical to the production of top quality specialty coffee, our lots get handpicked upwards to five times! In a few short days, all of our Burundi lots for the year will have been milled. The next two to three weeks will be filled with handpicking the coffee.
It is a race to the finish from here. As Seth mentioned in his section above, we want to get the lots handpicked as soon as possible because that allows us to get them into Grain-pro and thus hermetically sealed and safe from the impending rainy season. Too frequently, as a green coffee buyer, I have seen the onset of a rainy season in any given country of production, as a strike against the quality of the green coffee. This is especially true for coffees that are on the margins of not being fully dried. Coffees for which taking on a small amount of moisture pushes them into territory that encourages the quick degradation of what we perceive as freshness. I am so pleased to know firstly, that all of our lots were dried exceptionally well this year and, secondly, that our timeline concerning getting these final lots into Grain-pro is looking very good.
Once this process is complete we will continue loading containers and sending them around the world. A record year for us, we have already loaded and dispatched two containers from this harvest. In a few short weeks that number will be seven. The past two years have been important ones in strengthening relationships with importing partners in various markets. While we work directly with as many of our roasting partners as possible, we have found it essential to have key relationships in various markets around the world. Not only are these partners service providers, moving the coffees from Burundi to their destination market, but they are also critical in helping facilitate relationships with smaller roasting partners. This year, our coffees can be found with the following importers:
If you are in one of these markets and interested in coffee this year, please reach out to me. I will be only too happy to work on a plan with you to either send you samples directly or connect you with one of the above-mentioned importers. Whether we are sending you samples and handling contracts directly or having an importing partner help facilitate the process, it is so important to us that we connect with you personally and work together on and through the process!
*If you are in the Australian market and interested in coffees from this season, please reach out to our Burundi Lab Manager, Jordan, who was not able to make it to Burundi this year due to the pandemic, and is native to and currently located in Australia!
collected and translated by Joy Mavugo, in conjunction with Robyn-Leigh van Laren from the Long Miles Story Team
Every year, when our coffee harvest comes to an end, the Long Miles Coffee Scouts open up the “Pruning Campaign”. During this campaign, the Scouts move between the hills where coffee is grown, guiding the communities of coffee growers that we work with through the practice of pruning and stumping their coffee trees. The Scouts help these farmers to identify older or unhealthy coffee trees that should be pruned, stumped or uprooted from their farms. They also encourage farmers to weed and mulch the land where their coffee is grown to prepare the soil for the next year’s coffee harvest.
“In 2017, I pruned all of the coffee trees in one of my coffee plantations. In 2020, three years later, I picked double the amount of coffee cherry than what I used to harvest before pruning. The Scouts have helped me and the other coffee farmers in my community to understand the different ways of taking care of our coffee plantations. I remember the first time the Scouts told me about pruning and stumping older coffee trees. In my heart, I was thinking: “These young people don’t know what they’re talking about. Cutting coffee trees? No way.” Now, I am encouraging other farmers to prune and stump their coffee trees.
Firmin Niyibizi is a coffee farmer from Gaharo hill. He has two plantations and 300 coffee trees.
From the Field
written by Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager for Long Miles Coffee
Our washing station that remained opened to farmers the latest closed the harvest on July 31st. Two of our stations have taken all coffee off of the drying tables this week. The station that still has some coffee on drying tables is Heza and with the end of August, at most, every coffee should be taken off the tables. We are proud of what the teams have been able to achieve. There were a lot of challenges but they have shown that they can transform them into opportunities. Briefly, in November 2019, the Government announced that they wanted to come back to operating in the coffee sector (what was interpreted as re-nationalizing the coffee industry). No one knew what had to happen next. The regulations have been made unfavorable. For example, we were obliged to have on our accounts an amount that can pay 75% of expected cherry, in advance. That money couldn’t serve in other operations except for farmers’ payment. Consequently, getting the production license was so difficult. But today we endured and have even the exportation license. I can sit and sigh, whispering to myself and say: “God fought at our side. The harvest was difficult but we made it through. Though we are not sure of the future, we hope to always stand”.
As for the dry milling activities, we are progressing well. Here, also, we have challenges (which is normal). I previously talked about delays in milling program execution, lack of space for hand picking, power outage, forklift breaking down, bag marking that is slower…each of those challenges has happened to us. However, today we are happy that we have close to a full container of hand-picked coffee and 165 bags are already taxed (grade confirmation by the national coffee board: ODECA). If everything goes smoothly, we expect to ship our first container before the end of August, which will be the first year we are able to do so.
written by David Stallings, Roaster Relations for Long Miles Coffee
These are very busy days in the lab. But, they have also been very encouraging days. The coffees are tasting absolutely wonderful. This week, for the first time this season, I received not only table samples in my weekly package, but also some finished, milled pre-shipment samples. Efficiency has been a huge focus this year. Specifically, efficiency surrounding the time it takes to get coffee ready for export. Between the incredible work of our team in Burundi, the execution of new (and ever-evolving) quality control systems, and the strong logistics partners we have lined up in North America, Europe, and Australia, I am very confident that this will be our best year yet from the perspective of shipment timeliness.
It has been such a pleasure to be engaged in ongoing/regular communication with so many of you about your needs for this year. If you feel that you have not been heard regarding your needs for this season, by all means, please reach out to me!
