Buying coffee from Burundi: washing stations, Bourbon and what to check

Burundi coffee in numbers

Burundi grows less than 1% of the world's coffee, and its crop swings a lot from year to year: Algrano reports volumes between about 6,000 and 34,000 tonnes. Sucafina expected the 2025/26 crop to reach about 12,000 tonnes of green coffee, similar to the year before. More than 600,000 families take part in coffee, over 40% of the rural population.

Regions and harvest

Main growing areas include Kayanza, Ngozi, Kirundo-Muyinga, Kirimiro and Mumirwa. Picking starts in late March, washing stations run fully from about April, and the last cherries are picked in July. See the Burundi lots page for current offers.

Washing stations and cherry grades

Most Burundi coffee is fully washed at stations that float and hand-sort the cherry, pulp it within hours, ferment and wash it, grade it by density and dry it slowly on raised tables to about 11.5% moisture. Ripe cherry is bought as Cherry A and floaters as Cherry B at about half the price. Many stations now also make naturals and honeys. Read processing methods.

Who runs the sector

• ODECA, the national coffee development office, sets minimum cherry prices early in the harvest and still owns many washing stations and a dry mill in Bujumbura.
• Sales were opened to private buyers in 2009, and private companies now process around 70% of the crop. Most coffee is sold by private exporters directly to buyers, alongside an auction for government coffee.
• Rules have changed several times, so ask your exporter for the current export procedure before you sign.

Buying tips

• Ask for the washing station, the processing date and the cup score, and approve a pre-shipment sample.
• Burundi is landlocked: coffee travels by road to Dar es Salaam or Mombasa, so allow extra transit time and use hermetic liners. See shipping green coffee.
• Green coffee ships in 60 kg bags.
• For the EU, ask for plot geolocation early; some exporters already have GPS polygon maps. See the EUDR guide.