Improving livelihoods in Burundi via coffee

Coffee plays a central role in Burundi's economy. However, small farmers face low productivity and fluctuating yields, making it difficult to earn a livable income from coffee. With the Sustainable Coffee Sourcing project, we are working with Pelican Rouge, Supremo, Rainforest Alliance and Succam (a local exporter of green coffee) to improve the livelihoods of smallholder coffee farmers in the Mumirwa region of Burundi.

Positive change

Through the Selecta Coffee Fund, Pelican Rouge partners with Supremo, Rainforest Alliance (a green coffee buyer and part of ECOM group) and SUCCAM – a local green coffee exporter and Schuttelaar & Partners. The project builds upon a network of certified farmers and takes a next step – beyond certification – to improve the livelihoods of coffee farmers in the Mumirwa region in Burundi. The ambition is to provide over 10,000 farmers with a living income and improve social and environmental conditions. The focus areas of the project are to support coffee farmers to move works towards a living income and improve their climate resilience, and to strengthen the social and economic position of women. To improve farmers’ income and resilience key activities are to gradually rejuvenate coffee trees by planting young and climate resilient varieties, to diversify plots with shade trees and fruit and vegetables and provide dedicated trainings on good agricultural practices. Women play a vital role in agriculture and coffee production in Burundi. Therefore women are empowered to improve their economic and social positions and to develop additional sources of income.

Structural change

Responsible sourcing is one of the strategic pillars of the Selecta Group’s Sustainability Approach. Pelican Rouge initiated the project in Burundi to give more content to the strategy and move towards the sourcing of impact coffee. By collaborating with all supply chain partners, the coffee farmers are directly reached. Moreover, Pelican Rouge is committed to include coffee from the project region in Burundi as a standard origin in its coffee blends. Well beyond the duration of this project, this embodies the structural change that benefits the farmers, the environment and the socio-economic climate in Burundi. At Schuttelaar & Partners we are proud to contribute to this impactful project.

Our role

As part of the scoping phase for the project, Schuttelaar & Partners conducted a targeted human rights in 2019. After that, we set-up the project partnership in collaboration with Pelican Rouge and supported the funding application at the Fund for Responsible Business by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). In the first phase of the project, a local impact assessment was conducted to gain more insight in the local context and select the most impactful interventions. Implementation then started in 2021 and the project will run to the end of 2023. Schuttelaar & Partners is involved in the implementation phase as a strategic knowledge partner.