Burundi coffee producers welcomed a government decision to introduce direct sales that will bypass a central auction system, saying it would improve their income. The tiny central African producer will abandon the weekly sale system this month at the start of the 2007/08 marketing period.
"With the auction system, the coffee board and local exporters sat together and sold coffee that did not belong to them, and most of the profit from sales went to them," Macaire Ntirandekura, head of the national farmers' association, said. "We believe the new system will help the coffee farmer to earn the maximum," he told Reuters late on Tuesday.
With the auction system, a coffee board committee sets a reserve price on lots based on international prices and traders are then invited to forward sealed bids. Ntirandekura said his association had signed a contract with a marketer to promote Burundi's coffee and find international buyers.
By reforming the coffee trading system, the government hopes growers will reap a fatter return for their efforts and give the moribund economy a boost. The Burundi coffee board (OCIBU), which previously controlled the sector, will now keep the regulatory and technical assistance roles only.
Burundi expects output in 2007/08 to drop to 10,000 tonnes from 31,000 in the previous year, mainly due to ageing coffee trees. The government plans to facilitate the planting of 60 million new plants over the next three years to replace trees which were introduced in 1930 by Belgian colonial masters. The industry supports 800,000 smallholder farmers and is the leading foreign exchange earner for the country scarred by a decade-long war.