Long Miles Coffee Project was founded in 2011 by Ben and Kristy Carlson, initially operating a single washing station at Bukeye in Muramvya Province. The organisation has since grown into a vertically integrated producer and exporter working with several thousand smallholder families across three washing stations in Burundi, with further operations in Uganda and Kenya. Their sourcing model is built around hill-level traceability, whereby cherry deliveries are logged against the specific hill each farmer works, and lots are kept physically separate through fermentation, drying, milling and export. This allows individual hillsides to be offered as distinct lots rather than being pooled under a broader station or regional name.

Ninga is the newest of the three Burundian washing stations, and the one through which Giku cherry is processed. Land for the station was purchased in 2017, but construction and licensing took the better part of three years to complete, with first production beginning in 2020. Prior to Ninga becoming operational, farmers from Gikungere and the surrounding hills were required to carry their cherry on foot to the Bukeye station, a journey of several hours each way across two rivers and a provincial border. The opening of Ninga has substantially shortened that journey and brought processing infrastructure within reach of communities that previously had limited access to it.

This is our fourth consecutive harvest sourcing from the smallholders of Gikungere hill. Keeping lots separated at hill level adds a meaningful amount of work for a washing station in terms of logging, processing and storage, and that additional effort is more easily justified where roasters commit to returning for the same hills in subsequent harvests. Consistent repeat purchasing is therefore a fairly central part of how a hill-level sourcing model is sustained over time, and is something we place real weight on in how we approach our buying at origin.

The wider context for the 2025/26 Burundian harvest remains a challenging one. Exporters in country are currently navigating chronic fuel shortages, a dual exchange rate system that disadvantages those converting export revenues at the official rate, and a generally difficult logistical environment for moving coffee out of a landlocked country. Against that backdrop, the work being done by organisations like Long Miles in maintaining quality, traceability and a meaningful return of value to producers becomes all the more significant, and is a substantial part of why we continue to prioritise these relationships within our green buying.