136 Scarcity and SurfeitThe auction market has been opened to private exporters, ending the
monopolistic role of BCC. Private exporters are organised under the
Association Burundaise des E~portateILrS du CafP.The reforms have had a number of effects. First, they have widened the
sources of capital for players in the industry, both domestically and abroad.
This allows players in the subsector to access credit at competitive and some-
times concessionary rates. Second, they have limited the government's dis-
cretionary levy deductions, replacing them with an export tax. However, the
targets set for the privatisation of the coffee subsector and the liberalisation
of producer and intermediaries' prices remain largely unrealised.
Production and Adding Value
Coffee cultivation and processing is a tedious process. For arabica coffee, two
processing pathways are distinguishable. These follow the form in which the
farmer delivers the crop to the next stage of production, as either fully
washed or in semi-washed form.
In the semi-washed state, farmers depulp (by hand or with manual
depulpers) the harvested cherries. This requires a constant supply of fresh
water for the extraction of the fruit and has pollution consequences. The
depulped parchment coffee is then sold to traders. The traders sell collected
parchment coffee to the SODECO hulling factories. SODECO in turn sell the
parchment coffee to OCIBU who sell it to exporters on the auction market in
Bujumbura. The semi-washed hierarchy thus involves five stages of transaction.
The fully washed path is shorter. Here, the farmer sells the coffee cherries
immediately after harvesting to the SOGESTALs, which operate coffee-wash-
ing stations. The SOGEATALs convert the cherries into parchment and sell it
to SODECO. This process has two distinct advantages. One, it lessens the
work of the farmer and second it eliminates the middlemen traders.
The International Market: Players, Producers and Politics
The final coffee product requires more than just coffee bean production.
Roasting, grinding and packaging are additional processes. However, importers
undertake these processes, lengthening the production chain before the prod-
uct reaches the consumer. Arabica's terminal market is New York while robus-
ta's is London. American roasters insist that for best quality, coffee has to be
roasted and ground near the consumer and delivered within seven days, with
the premium of 48 hours. This however, is a trade barrier excuse by traders in
the consuming countries of the developed world, which could easily be over-
come through the technology of vacuum packing. The American roasters'
argument is consonant with the century-old opposition by the north to import
value added food products from the developing world.