Tag: East Africa

In coffee production, the only constant is change

Every year we hold our breath and hope as the Burundian government reviews applications to produce coffee. Producing coffee in Burundi is never a guarantee, which means that annually we need new permission granted only by the government in order to operate. There are always new hurdles to jump though in order to get a license and this year was no different.

As this season started, the government coffee board demanded that every coffee producer have the money needed to pay their farmers already in the bank; to be held in trust, before a single coffee cherry was delivered to the washing station. Last year’s coffee harvest was 25% of the normal export nationwide, which makes having these funds in advance unreasonable for most producers, including ourselves. On top of this law came the statement that if coffee producers were unable to comply, they would lose their washing station(s) along with any permission to produce coffee ever again in their lifetime.

We are no stranger to this kind of last-minute law building as coffee season starts, but scrambling to comply with these laws has made for a hard month. Add COVID-19 and its worldwide effects on top of this and we, possibly like you, have been surrounded by a thunderstorm of worries. Thankfully, we were able to find a way to comply with the government’s new laws and we began collecting coffee cherries last week. Friday’s daily report showed that 2,181.5 kilograms were delivered to our Bukeye washing station, so harvest is off to a nice slow start. Our other washing station, Heza, is at a higher elevation and is usually a few weeks behind Bukeye.

Image taken during coffee harvest in 2011, before Long Miles really began.

Recently while we were looking over our coffee-producing years, we realized that March Madness doesn’t just take place in basketball. March has, for the last six years, always held big challenges for us. Whether it’s a nation-wide fuel shortage, a coup d’état, a strangely low harvest or COVID-19, the start of harvest has always been marked by a challenge that feels larger than life.

As we all navigate this pandemic and its devastating challenges together, we’ve found hope in the coming harvest. Just like Spring coming or the sun setting, nature seems to hold a solidity that we all need right now. Harvest can’t be held back or rescheduled, the coffee cherries will ripen when they ripen. Production license or not, COVID-19 or not – harvest just comes. In a world that feels out of control, nature is a veiled reminder that stability will come again and that maybe, just maybe, normal life will too.

May 2, 2020
Too Much Rain

“RUGURU (upcountry ) IS BAD. TOO MUCH RAIN.”

It comes in a message from Anicet, one of our coffee scouts at the end of last year.

The heavy rains have caused soil to spill down the steep slope our Heza washing station is built on, stopping just short of the cherry reception tanks. Part of the road leading to Heza has crumbled away, making it impossible for anything or anyone to pass. We have to make our way on back roads to reach Heza now, adding an extra hour onto our already two-and-a-half-hour journey.

The rain started coming down in October and the ground hasn’t been dry since. It’s not unusual to have rain this time of year, but it is unusual to have so much. The reality is, Burundi doesn’t have the kind of infrastructure to handle all this rain. There are no real gutters here. No retaining walls or storm drains. Entire roads wash away, becoming one big deadly beast that makes its way through neighborhoods. This devastation spills over into farmers’ fields, uprooting crops. It breaks down homes, church buildings, erodes roads and sometimes claims lives.

“YOU CAN’T GO 500M WITHOUT SEEING THE DAMAGE FROM THE RAIN. IT’S TOUCHING EVERYTHING, NOT JUST THE COFFEE.” – Merchicedeck, coffee farmer on Gikungere hill

We’ve heard heartbreaking stories of friends waking up in the middle of the night, their belongings floating all around them. Families have spent days sweeping and scooping rainwater out of their homes by the bucketful. Raging knee-deep rivers have cut off entire neighbourhoods from one another.

Last week we took to the coffee hills to see how our farming community was feeling about all the rain. On the way up, the one national road was blocked by piles of mud that had spilled down from the surrounding mountains, making it impossible for cars to pass. Trucks that usually haul goods and fuel across Bujumbura (Burundi’s economic capital) were stopped dead in their tracks. Lines of cars snaked both up and down the road, waiting for the mud to be cleared by hand. We counted two broken pipelines spilling precious water across the road with no one to fix them in sight.

“THE BEGINNING OF COFFEE HARVEST IS SUPPOSED TO BE A HAPPY TIME FOR US, BUT THE RAIN IS BECOMING OUR ENEMY.” – Pascal, coffee farmer from Munyinya hill

This is not just a challenge for Burundi. It’s a hard truth to swallow for South Sudan, Central African Republic, Uganda, DR Congo, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.

“MY FAMILY’S LIFE STANDS ON COFFEE. WE WERE EXPECTING A LOT OF IT THIS YEAR, BUT DAY BY DAY I WATCH IT DISAPPEAR. THE RIPENING COFFEE CHERRIES AND LEAVES KEEP FALLING OFF THE TREES BECAUSE OF THE HEAVY RAIN.” – Abel, coffee farmer from Munyinya hill

Almost as quickly as the heavy rains came down, they slipped away again. We celebrate the dry days, our ears still prickling at the sound of rumbling thunder and dreading the pitter-patter of fresh rain.

February 13, 2020