The Akawa project in collaboration with Succam

UTZ certification project in Burundi

End of 2015 Supremo and Succam decided to partner together in order to obtain the UTZ certification of 5 WS owned by Succam. The project was developed between the Supremo office in Bruges, our representative in Burundi, Antoine Nitunga, and Succam. Once certified Supremo will be the first to be able offer UTZ certified coffee out of Burundi!

 

An enormous effort was made in certifying 6,135 small holder farmers through the hiring of 10 agronomists in the field and appointing group leaders (240 in total) within the catchment areas of the 5 WS located in the counties of Burambi and Buyengero (South West region below Bujumbura). All coffees are grown at an altitude ranging between 1500m and 2000m.

 

The main challenge at the start of the program was to convince the farmers to adhere to the certification. On average more than 50% of the farmers within the catchment area of the WS signed in which means that, if successful, there is still a large potential to grow.

 

With the agronomists we worked on the three pillars of the UTZ program: Good agricultural practices, respect of the environment and social responsibility. More specifically we worked on:

  • Mulching

  • Weading

  • Stumping (on a very small scale , difficult to convince them)

  • Free shade tree distribution

  • Access to fertilizer

Nurseries
  • Creation of nurseries at WS level, free distribution of seedlings

  • How to use optimize pest control

  • Canalization, anti-erosion principles

  • Environmental awareness training

 

At Washing Station level large investments where required to meet the UTZ standards:

  • Digging new waste water treatment basins

  • Splitting up UTZ and Non UTZ coffees: large increase needed of drying tables and separate storage facilities where built

  • Adapting the WS to UTZ safety standards

washing station

During our visit of the Washing Stations we held meetings with the agronomists, group leaders and farmers. Out of these meetings the farmers expressed the following concerns:

UTZ meeting
  • Low prices paid for cherry during the crop. More interesting to cultivate palm oil.

  • Cost of farm maintenance and GAP. Awaiting UTZ premium to compensate

  • Access to farm inputs. Government doesn’t support.

  • Willingness to receive aid from Europe

 

Overview of the 5 UTZ-Certified Washing Stations : 

Washing Station

Rubirizi

Altitude

1620m

Number of certified farmers

1516

Certfied volumes in MT (cherry)

308

 

Washing Station

Runyinya

Altitude

1600m

Number of certified farmers

577

Certfied volumes in MT (cherry)

208

 

Washing Station

Burambi

Altitude

1550m

Number of certified farmers

1284

Certfied volumes in MT (cherry)

297

 

Washing Station

Ruhora

Altitude

1560m

Number of certified farmers

1403

Certfied volumes in MT (cherry)

553

 

Washing Station

Nayagashiha

Altitude

1500m

Number of certified farmers

1355

Certfied volumes in MT (cherry)

410

 

In total 288MT of green coffee was produced by the UTZ certified farmers of the 5 WS. This amounts to 45% of Succam’s total production.

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