“Together, we can!” As both the chosen name—Turihamwe Turashobora, in Kirundi—and rallying cry of the all-women producer group behind this exceptional coffee from Ngozi, Burundi, it comes as no surprise that the group’s communal spirit and dedication are readily apparent in each complex, delicate sip. Early notes of florals and citrus transform into something greater than just the sum of its parts—juicy peach, berry jam, and grounding grapefruit remind us of the extraordinary quality achievable through the coming-together of this powerful community of women growers.Sourced through Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian of JNP Coffee, this release was produced in particular by the small group of founding members of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) chapter in Burundi. The IWCA itself was founded in 2003 by a group of women in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the US, who decided to come together to focus on female empowerment and connection as tools for changing the coffee industry for the better. Strong research suggests that investing in women increases the sustainability of coffee everywhere; women are more likely to reinvest almost all of their income back into their families, their coffee business, and their communities. 

Jeanine met the small cohort of female producers in Burundiduring a period of growth, and together, the group sought to not only formally unite a demographic that makes up about 70% of all coffee labor in the country, but strove to tangibly empower women-producers, as well. In a region in which most women are not landowners, or in a position to open a bank account or contribute to their family’s economic growth, the team’s first joint project focused on economic empowerment, financial literacy, and diversification of income through goat farming. This additional source of income not only provided a sturdy backbone for scaling future coffee production, but kicked off many future projects focused around these overarching pillars of business success.In Burundi, overall, a great majority of coffee producers are smallholder farmers. Rather than referring to the area of the land they tend (ie, in hectares), as is common in other coffee-producing countries, most growers will measure how many trees they own. On average, an individual producer owns about 25-50 trees; therefore, many producers will pool their harvests to create a large enough lot to go to market. 

Typically, upon harvest, smallholder growers will sell their ripe cherry to a washing station, which will process, dry, and mill the coffee in preparation for export. In this instance, female producers receive a premium, underwritten by JNP here, so that the coffee produced by this group can be properly sorted and separated out, to be sold as an IWCA product. JNP’s premium is a second payment to each producer, received after an initial base payment for cherry, based on the price set by Jeanine.

It’s through these premiums that a subset of seven women from the group were able to pool funds to build their very own wet mill, both a source of pride and way to control the quality of their coffee, even through processing. Now in its fourth year of operation, the wet mill—called Gitemezi—has steadily increased capacity to serve their community, while standing in contrast to the larger nationalized wet mills that are more common in the country.

The Turihamwe Turashobora group as a whole has now been working together for four years, with production volumes growing steadily through each year of operation. This year, they are close to producing 1400 bags of green coffee total, a major milestone as a whole. The group’s leadership has remained the same since the beginning of its formation, with continued consistency allowing for a greater focus on process and quality, while enabling widespread effficiencies of scale and production. While the group has greatly benefited from this dedicated leadership, it now faces the challenge of building a succession plan and strategizing how best to involve the next generation of growers. 

While production volumes are at an all-time high for the Turihamwe group, JNP is of course not immune to the current spikes in costs faced by many global industries in recent months and years—with freight costs alone rising by over 400%. Inland transit, insurance, containers, and clearing fees are just a few areas of the importing/exporting process where Jeanine has experienced price fluctuations out of her control, which, unsurprisingly, has translated to JNP’s first-ever price increase for their customers. Jeanine notes that growers in Burundi are not as directly impacted by higher prices in areas such as fertilizer and transportation, but overall inflation has taken its toll on daily living costs, as well as fuel shortages lowering productivity in wet mills. Interestingly enough, Jeanine says this has led to an increase in the production of natural coffees, as these require less energy and water to process than fully washed coffees.

Even through these current challenges, Jeanine remains optimistic about the future of specialty coffee in her home country. “I don’t see any other way. In places like Burundi, women are the ones working the land, taking care of the coffee trees among other crops. If we want to sustain the coffee industry, we need to emphasize quality, pay good money for it, and bring in other programs to allow farmers to diversify their crops and income, in addition to education. Also, in places like Burundi, contrary to countries like Brazil, the harvest is small and with the right support, the opportunity to produce mostly specialty grade-coffee every year is very attainable.”