ABOUT THIS COFFEE

Masha coffee washing station shares its name with the sub-hill upon which it stands. The sub-hill is actually more famous for its cattle than its coffee. The name Masha comes from the Kirundi word “amasho”, meaning “herds of cattle”. The sub-hill has been a crossroad for many herds in the region. Many of the local herders greet each other with a unique phrase only used in this region. They say, “gira amasho”, which means “owner of cows”.  

Masha station was built in 1989. The majority of farmers who deliver cherry are subsistence farmers. Farmers intercrop their trees with food crops and other cash crops to feed and support their families. 

CULTIVATION

Many trees in Burundi are Red Bourbon. Because of the increasingly small size of coffee plantings, aging rootstock is a very big issue in Burundi. Many farmers have trees that are over 50 years old, but with small plots to farm, it is difficult to justify taking trees entirely out of production for the 3-4 years it will take new plantings to begin to yield. In order to encourage farmers to renovate their plantings, Greenco purchases seeds from the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU), establishes nurseries and sells the seedlings to farmers at or below cost. At the washing station, farmers can also get organic fertilizer made from composted coffee pulp. 

Despite the ubiquity of coffee growing in Burundi, each smallholder produces a relatively small harvest. The average smallholder has approximately 250 trees, normally in their backyards. Each tree yields an average of 1.5 kilos of cherry so the average producer sells about 200-300 kilos of cherry annually.

HARVEST & POST-HARVEST

During the harvest season, all coffee is selectively hand-picked. Most families only have 200 to 250 trees, and harvesting is done almost entirely by the family.  

Quality assurance begins as soon as farmers deliver their cherry. Cherries are 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 machine can process up to 3 tons of cherry per hour. During pulping, cherry is separated in to high- and low-grade by density on a Mackinon 3-disc pulper outfitted with an additional separation disk.  The coffee is dry fermented for up to 12 hours and then washed in clean water and soaked 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. Masha station has around 170 drying beds and can process up to 750MT per year.