This coffees story begins with a fisherman in Ngogomo who started coffee production when all the fish disappeared from the stream the Ngogomo Washing Station is now on!
Today, Ngogomo Washing Station is one of the main stations in the province of Muyinga. It was contructed in 1992 and serves 1,725 farmers from the surrounding hills. The station is overseen by Severin Nizigiyimana. It has 10 fermentation tanks, 3 soaking tanks, 258 dying tables, 4 selection tables and 10 floating tanks. The station can process up to 1,500 metric tons of cherry thought the harvest in April to June.
Each farming family has approximately 250 trees, often in their backyard. Each tree can produce up to 1.5kg of cherry per harvest, meaning the average farmer produces 200-300kg per harvest. Zest has purchased 300kg of this lot, equivilant to one family's full harvest.
About 70% of all of Burundi's coffee is processed as a fully washed, in the same way as this lot. The family's deliver their coffee to the washing station, or various collection sites through the growing areas. Once the cherry arrives at the washing station, the cherry is floated to seperate the 'floaters' from the quality coffee. The cherry is then hand sorted, and then pulped to remove the cherry from the seed/bean. All cherry is de-pulped within 6 hours of delivery. After pulping, the cherry is fermented in water from a nearby stream for 10-12 hours.
After fermentation, the coffee is run through washing and grading canals, where the coffee is seperated into seven grades according to density.
The coffee is then transported to drying tables, where they slowly dry for 3-4 weeks. During nights, rain, and the hottest parts of the day, the cherry is covered in tarps. The cherry is dried to 11.5%.
After processing, the coffee is transported to Budeca, Burundi's largest dry mill. Here, the coffee is milled and hand sorted with extreme attention to detail using technology like UV lighting to point out defects. Any defects are discarded. A team of two hand-pickers takes a day to process one bag of coffee. Budeca employs 10% of the population of Gitega, the city Budeca is located in.
