In July 2023, members of our Fair Trade team, along with our overseas partners, visited coffee producers in Burundi.

Burundi is a country located in East Africa, bordering Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. To give you an idea of its size, it is about 1.5 times the size of Shikoku in Japan, and is home to 11.53 million people. Its GDP is $3.075 billion, ranking 163rd out of 189 countries (2024), and it is considered one of the poorest countries in the world. A large part of the country is covered by plateaus at an altitude of about 1,500m, where flavorful coffee is cultivated.

Burundi, formerly known as "Ruanda-Urundi," was under Belgian rule along with its neighbor Rwanda. Due to having formed a single colony, Burundi shares similarities with Rwanda in terms of language, social structure, and ethnic composition.
After gaining independence from Belgium in 1962, Burundi, like Rwanda, experienced repeated ethnic conflicts between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi groups. As a result, many women who are widows of conflict live in the region.

Since 2012, Zensho has been working with women's producers' cooperatives in Burundi on fair trade coffee. Using social development costs, they distribute solar panel kits equipped with radios, primarily to young producers who are raising many school-aged children. Over the two years from 2020 to 2021, this initiative benefited a total of 75 households and 1,500 producers across five producer cooperatives.


* social development costs: This refers to the portion of the raw material purchase price that is allocated to various activities aimed at improving the lives of local people.

One female producer said, "Until now, we used oil torches to light our homes, which meant we suffered from health problems due to the smoke, and we also had to worry about burns and other hazards when we had young children. Since we started generating electricity with solar panels, we can live with peace of mind." She also told us, "Unlike in the city center, newspapers are not widespread in this area, so we previously had no way to get information. Now, mothers in the neighborhood gather together to listen to the radio, and it has fostered a sense of community." Children in the neighborhood can now gather at homes with lights on and study at home even at night.

Zensho will continue its commitment to fair trade with female producers in Burundi.