Espresso: Burundi Kayanza Nemba washed

We keep returning to coffees from Nemba washing station and with good reason! Nemba station lies in the northern province of Kayanza. Nemba is managed and led by an agronomist. The agronomist oversees the implementation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and farmer education. They collaborate with the producers to ensure they have access to the necessary farming tools. The agronomist also helps farmers determine and implement the practices best suited to the specific growing conditions of their farming plots.

All 1,074 producers are smallholders who own an average of 150 coffee trees. The farms delivering cherry to Nemba are all located around 1,700+ meters above sea level, near the Kibila forest. The washing station has over two hundred drying tables and can process up to 750 metric tons of coffee cherry annually. Nemba uses a monitoring system to ensure traceability all along the production and processing chain.

The washing station participates in a number of farmer outreach and support projects including a livestock rearing project and a range of Farmer Hub projects centered on strengthening cooperatives and improving yields.

During the harvest season, all coffee is selectively hand-picked. Most families have only 200 to 250 trees, and harvesting is done almost entirely by the family. Quality assurance begins as soon as farmers deliver their cherry. Cherry is wet-processed under constant supervision. The pulping, fermentation time, washing, grading in the channels and a final soaking are all closely monitored. All cherry is floated in small buckets as a first step to check quality. After floating, the higher quality cherry is sorted again by hand to remove all damaged, underripe and overripe cherries. 

After sorting, cherry is pulped within 6 hours of delivery. The coffee is dry fermented for up to 12 hours and then soaked in clean water for 12 to 24 hours. Parchment is then soaked for an additional 12 to 18 hours before being dried on raised beds for 2 to 3 weeks. Workers carefully inspect drying parchment for any damaged beans and rake parchment frequently to ensure even drying.