Photography from coffee farm and wet mill visits in Kayanza and Ngozi areas of Burundi
I took an extended East Africa trip in May 2018, but with only a limited number of days in BurundiBurundi coffee bears resemblance to neighboring Rwanda, in both cup character, but also the culture surrounding coffee. Burundi is a small landlocked country at the crossroads of East.... But since I’ve been there many times before, I was able to focus on just a few washing stations in a limited area, Kayanza and Ngozi.
Nothing is ever simple or straight foward here, and the policies of the government really don’t help. The fact that the encourage private investment in coffee, then threaten to punish or even take back private operations really doesn’t help the coffee farmer.
Whichever direction they want to take coffee here, it’s the backtracking and instability that hurts everyone. Times are tough on the Burundi coffee farm.
Here are some photos and thoughts from the trip, and also see our other topical articles on Burundi coffee: Burundi Coffee in Permanent Crisis, and Video: Visiting Dusangirijambo, a Burundi Coffee Cooperative
There are also some interesting papers and presentations in PDF form in my collection of coffee papers: Coffee Science: Academic Papers and Documents
-Thompson