The Gitwenge Washing Station is located in the town of Gatara, in the Kayanza Province of Burundi. The trading center for Gitwenge is located in Gisyo which is three kilometers from Gitwenge.
On average there are 2500 coffee producers contributing to Gitwenge, 408 of which contribute directly to the station, and 2092 of which contribute to nine different collection points.
Other crops in the area include: banana, beans, sweet potatoes, cassava and taro.
Deep in the heart of Africa is the tiny country of Burundi, and deep in Burundi is Café Imports. We have been trekking to this tiny country south of Rwanda on Lake Tanganyika since 2006 over the course of multiple trips and a total of 3 months on-the-ground time. We have really enjoyed passing along our findings and experience; time and energy well spent. Since 2006 we’ve cupped coffees from more than 50 washing stations and narrowed down our favorites, choosing to further our relationships and efforts respectively.
Our Kayanza, Burundi offerings are part of a Café Imports project where a quality premium is paid above the normal "market rate," and this premium is paid directly back to the farmers. Burundi is just south of Rwanda but miles and miles away in the cup. The two countries share much: the same tribes, the same coffee varieties, and a similar history, but the cups are not even related. This is a case of terroir.
Coffee in Burundi is a logistics challenge—even for the best of us. It is a particularly poor country, tied with Congo for the lowest GDP in Africa. The tiny landlocked nation also shares the same tribal conflicts that Rwanda has experienced; unlike in Rwanda, however, they’ve never been reconciled. In spite of all this, our work and investment on the ground over the years has allowed us to consistently get the coffees we are proud of and that many of you have grown to love.
For more information about coffee production in Burundi, visit our Burundi origin page.
