Rugazi means “place of many palms” and that is the first thing you notice when driving into the Bubanza province, west Burundi. Situated north-west of the capital of Bujumbura, Rugazi has rich volcanic soil that helps produce a sweet and complex cup profile. Farmers here intercrop coffee trees with bananas and beans which not only provide shade for coffee trees but food for the farmers and their community.

Cherries are received not only from the Rugazi area, but also from the surrounding Kibuye, Nyenkarange and Bugume hills. Historically the Rugazi mill only produced washed coffee, however in 2018 manager Adolphe Ndarusanze took a leap of faith and trialled honeys for the first time. On the back of the extraordinary quality produced in the pilot run, Adolphe and the team have rolled out larger scale infrastructure for greater production of honeys in 2019. We find the honey lots cupping with nectarine, honey, apricot and butterscotch, while the washed have intense yellow stone fruit, cherry, black tea and nougat.

The Rugazi mill is one of 13 mills that form the Akawa project. A joint venture between SUCCAM and Supremo, the Akawa project was created to help producers escape the cycle of poverty in a sustainable and equitable way. Producers, striving for fairer remunerations and better living conditions, demanded a path towards prosperity. As such the project's working directives are based around UTZ certification standards, focusing on good agricultural practices, environmental responsibility and social equity as the central tenets of success for project members.

Latitude, Longitude: -3.22603, 29.46547
Altitude: 1425 masl
Participating Farmers: 670 Farmers
Coffee Variety: Red Bourbon
Soil Type: Humus-Volcanic Soil
Average Rainfall: 1360 mm
Average Temperature: 18 °C
Processing capacity: 20 MT of green coffee
Drying Beds: 90 Traditional drying beds
Seedlings in nursery: 19603 (Aug 2018)
Washing station Manager: Adolphe Ndarusanze
Agronomist: Ezechiel Ciza