Burundi Izere Coffee Direct Trade
by Deborah Ntawigirira
Izere coffee is a company I co-founded with my mother in order to bring in specialty coffee (Burundi Izere) from coffee coops. Like me, it’s a Canadian and Burundian company.
As reflected in the brand’s name, Izere is founded on the values of hope and faith, traits that exemplify the strong spirit of resilience and optimism of the local people.
We make it a point to treat every actor of the value chain with dignity and consideration. We put significant emphasis, through different processes, on the quality of our product. We believe that our coffee should speak for itself.
We are cognizant of the importance of ensuring that every actor on the value chain has a strong sense of ownership. From the small farmer in the hills to the final consumer, we would like to create a close-knit faithful community that is invested in and shares the success of Izere.
We want to take our customers with us on a journey of discovery of the character of the Burundi Izere bean. We believe that our coffee is a fitting ambassador of the product of Burundi’s rich soil and the dedication of local small farmers.
In 2020, the country has been impacted a lot and with the challenges that coffee growers were facing previously, the pandemic did no help at all but has worsened some aspects of the business. Things take longer than usual but coffee growers and communities are still doing an amazing job. We hope to help with what we can more and more.
