Transforming Lives and Livelihoods in Burundi through Coffee Production

Jan 26, 2021

There are more than 800,000 families in Burundi involved in coffee growing, with an average of 250 trees each. Though Burundi does not produce the same amount of coffee as its neighboring East African countries, it exports 100 percent of its coffee, making it the 29th largest coffee-producing country globally. 

Cooperative Twungurane, a coffee-producing organization in Burundi, struggled to increase sales revenue due to limited capacity to collect coffee cherries and an inability to transform harvested cherries into high-quality beans.  

USADF provided Cooperative Twungurane approximately $150,000 between 2016 and 2020 to build a coffee washing station, train members on sustainable harvesting techniques, and set up a working capital fund. 

With USADF support, Twungurane increased the volume of harvested coffee cherries from 124,957 kg to 406,430 kg and improved the quality of green coffee, resulting in increased sales revenue from $51,000 to $182,000. The number of cooperative members also increased by 158%, from 257 to 664 members. 

Using their savings, cooperative members created a local microfinance organization, Caisse d'Epargne et de Crédit, in which each member contributes approximately $7 a year and then has access to loans to cover household needs.