Masha washing station in Kayanza Burundi accepts coffee from over 3200 local farmers. Each producer has only 297 trees on average on roughly .11 hectares of land. These small-holder farmers are reliant upon coffee for their livelihood.

Harvest here is typically April through June, but coffee’s have a long journey to export from this landlocked country.

Coffee is processed at the BUDECA, SIVCA dry mill prior to export.

From our export partner:

Masha coffee washing station shares its name with the sub-hill upon which it stands and is actually more famous for its cattle than its coffee (the sub-hill that is). The name Masha is derived from the Kirundi word “amasho” meaning “herds of cattle”. The sub-hill has been a cross road for many herds in the region and many of the local herders even have a unique greeting for each other, used only in these parts which is appropriate considering that 70% of them own cows. They will say “gira amasho” towards one another meaning owner of cows and the abundance of cattle was even a reason for many Kings fighting over the territory in order to claim ownership over the vast herds of livestock.

Apart from cows and coffee, the hill on which the station is found, Gihororo, is named after the imihororo trees from which the locals weave traditional clothing making this region truly abundant in precious resources to its people. The station did experience its fair share of difficulties, especially when the country was in a period of turmoil. In 1997, the storage facility and main house at the station was burnt down by rebels during the political conflict in Burundi.

Microlot
Burundi microlots are selected out of the daylots created by various centralized washing stations, basis cup quality. Because the average farmer in Burundi owns 1/8–1/4 a hectare of land, many smallholder farmers will deliver their fresh cherry to a washing station in order to be sorted and processed; microlots, then, are blended lots comprising coffees from many producers that express exquisite coffee, but are not generally traceable to the individual producers.