Burundi – Mikuba

The Long Miles Project, founded by Ben and Kristy Carlson, opened its doors in 2013 and
aims to raise the bar of specialty coffees coming out of Burundi. The project works with more
than 4.500 individual coffee farmers living near two central washing stations, Bukeye, opened in
2013 and Heza, from 2014. There are several reasons why producing speciality coffee in
Burundi is an incredibly difficult task. There’s the incredibly unstable political situation, where
government can change rules on coffee prices and production seemingly overnight, the
geographical constraints, that come with being a small landlocked country attempting to export
coffee by sea freight, the constant threat of military coup. But through it all the Carlson
family have managed to establish themselves as producers and exporters of consistently
delicious coffees, all the while providing some semblance of stability to the lives of smallholder
farmers that surround their two washing stations in the northern Kayanza Province, near the border with Rwanda.