Ngoma

About the farmer and farm

The Ngoma washing station is located near the town of Kavumu in Rwanda's Southern Province, amid dense forests and hills, at 1400–2100 meters above sea level.

The station was built in 2005 with support from a USAID program. It's now co-owned by MIG Coffee and Coffee Business Center.

Farmers supplying cherry own an average of 200 Bourbon trees.

The station converts pulp from processing into organic fertilizer, which is distributed to farmers to nourish their trees.

Processing: natural

Ripe cherries are picked and delivered to the station, where they're hand-sorted to remove damaged, underripe, and overripe fruit, then floated to separate out lighter, defective beans.

The selected cherries are laid out on raised beds to dry in the sun, turned every 3 hours and covered with shade nets during the hottest hours or rain.

Drying takes 35–47 days to reach the target moisture of 12%.