Contact: Stephanie Motschenbacher PH: 517-884-2135 Mobile: 517-648-9945

Specialty coffee buyers, a better quality product and an increase in prices paid to growers are the keys to building a strong coffee sector in Burundi, according to Michigan State University faculty and staff who are helping the once war-torn country develop its market.

For these changes to happen the government must be successful in privatizing its coffee sector, but it hasnt been easy for Burundi, said Dan Clay, director of MSUs Institute for International Agriculture. It will mean giving up the stream of foreign exchange its long received from trading commodity-grade coffee.

Clay said while Rwanda has already transitioned through its post-conflict period and neighboring countries have privatized coffee and other government-owned industries, Burundi has been embroiled in a 13-year war. They have fallen behind and now must move quickly to catch up.

MSUs success in turning around Rwandas coffee sector in recent years has motivated Burundi to engage the university and its partners in a similar capacity.

Burundi has the potential to restructure and offer a highly competitive product in specialty coffee markets, Clay said. But it needs producer incentives to raise quality and at the same time must establish market linkages and a recognizable image to successfully manage its transition away from the price sensitive commodity markets and into direct specialty sales.

Currently, MSU is hosting buyer tours and working with growers at pilot sites to make changes in harvesting and processing techniques to ultimately create a better product. And a better product means coffee can be sold directly to buyers in a free market system where prices are higher and often more stable than they are in the traditional commodity auction.

The primary vehicle for this effort has been through the Burundi Agribusiness Program (BAP), a five-year program sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development and conducted in close partnership with Development Alternatives, Incorporated (DAI).

A new approach, already the changes have translated into collaboration and sales among buyers and producers.

As the first step in a relationship building process, many coffee roasters and importers have already surveyed Burundis washing stations and met some of its growers, processors and exporters.

In a parallel step the government of Burundi has recently begun to receive offers from private sector bidders as they sell off the countrys 133 state-owned washing stations.

Consistent with our mission, this project allows us to do what we do best: bring industry and community members together with improvements in science and technology to address hunger and poverty, one of the great global problems of our time, Clay said. And, in the end, Burundi will have built a free market industry around its largest cash crop and export.