Rains, end to war to boost Burundi coffee

Favourable weather and reduced fighting could boost Burundi's coffee production to 37,000 tonnes worth about $40 million this year from 5,600 tonnes valued at $6.5 million in 2003, an official said on Thursday.
The tiny central African country, which is struggling to finally emerge from a decade-long ethnic conflict with elections scheduled for later this year, also hopes that an end to the war will eventually allow privatisation of the coffee sector.
"Last year was catastrophic because of drought and coffee berry disease, we lost everything. But this year we've had good rain and little sickness," said Barthelemy Niyikiza, director general of Burundi's coffee board, known by its acronym, OCIBU.
A November 2003 cease-fire between the government and the country's biggest rebel group ended fighting between the main belligerents, who are now finalising power-sharing deals ahead of elections scheduled for the end of October.
One small rebel group has refused to join the peace process and while occasional skirmishes continue in pockets outside the capital, Bujumbura, the daily death tolls from clashes have dropped dramatically, allowing most farmers to return to work.
The war broadly pitted the politically dominant Tutsi minority against rebels from the Hutu majority.
Some 300,000 people have been killed over the past 10 years, while another 700,000 fled the country.
Niyikiza said about 32,000 tonnes of the 2003/04 crop of high-grade arabica beans would be fully washed now that producers can safely transport their cherries to stations instead of washing them at home, improving the quality and raising value.
"With the improvement of the security situation, producers are free to move around, cultivate their plants and bring the cherries to washing stations without fear," he told Reuters.
Coffee has long been Burundi's main export, worth about 80 percent of the resource-poor state's foreign exchange earnings.
Niyikiza said the country produced an average of about 30,000 tonnes annually before war erupted in October 1993.
Production peaked during the 1994/95 season when Burundi exported 41,000 tonnes worth about $80 million, but the industry has since been hit by war, drought and weak global prices.
Burundi hopes that privatising its coffee sector could make it more competitive, Niyikiza said.
"Growers are being organised into co-ops with the idea of eventually privatising and making producers into shareholders. People will be more motivated if things are privatised," he said.
With rich soils, seasonal rainfall and high-altitude mountains and sitting near the equator, Burundi enjoys some of the best coffee-growing conditions in the world, with the best beans coming from the country's northern and central provinces.