Kibingo

Producer

Kibingo

Kibingo Station is a washing station in the commune of Kayanza in northern Burundi. It collects cherry from around 1800 registered smallholder farmers spread across 18 hills in the surrounding area. Most of these families have only 200 to 250 trees and harvest themselves. Frank manages the station's daily operations and quality control. He runs a tight process and cares about consistency from one season to the next. We visited in 2024 and were impressed with how well organised everything was. We arrived around 4pm, just as farmers began bringing in their cherry for the day, and followed the full intake process up close. Frank's hands-on approach and the station's solid infrastructure make Kibingo a reliable partner.

Kibingo sits at 1900 metres in the hills of Kayanza, one of Burundi's finest coffee growing regions.

The station sits at 1900 masl while the smallholders farms range between 1700 to 1900 masl. All coffee is Red Bourbon, selectively hand-picked during the harvest season. The station is well equipped, with 10 fermentation tanks, 2 soaking tanks and 165 drying tables. It can handle up to 750,000 kilograms of cherry per day. For this lot, the processing is a yeast inoculated dry natural. ORO yeast is added to the cherry tank at intake. The cherry ferments for around 36 hours before moving to the drying tables, where it dries slowly over two to three weeks. It is sorted and turned regularly to ensure even drying and remove any defects. In between seasons, the station supports its farming community with subsidised seedlings and organic fertiliser made from composted pulp.