Burundi Karehe IWCA Womens Group Grainpro

Coffee Background

Want to support women in coffee? Here is one of those rare opportunities where all that is good about coffee intersect. First, Burundi is truly a place where coffee trade done well can positively impact the lives of many who otherwise suffer from the constant uncertainty of civil unrest. Second, Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, who was born and raised in Burundi has made it her mission to establish a coffee export company called JNP Coffee that focuses on empowering women producers. And third, this lot comes from the Karehe growing region, which has repeatedly shown superior quality with consecutive top finishes in the Cup of Excellence competitions. In Burundi it is common for producers to harvest from just a few dozen trees, which means Jeanine has a network of 2000 women producers all members of the Burundi chapter of the International Women's Coffee Alliance (IWCA) who are committed to a model of earning more with quality premiums generated from collective empowerment. For this lot more than 200 women delivered their very best cherry to the washing station in Karehe where there is additional classification including hand sorting and floating the cherry. The cherry is gently dried on raised beds until the moisture reaches 11 percent, after which the coffee is stored in grainpro bags until it is time to prepare for export. A strong reputation in the international community allows Jeanine to pay well above the government minimum for cherry and pay women to sort while the coffee dries in preparation for export.