Located near the border with Rwanda in Burundi's Kayanza province, farmers near the Yandaro coffee washing station benefit from cultivating coffee in a unique microclimate. Situated in the valley of the Yandaro river and close to the Kibira Rainforest, the region boasts ample groundwater and nutrient-rich soil. This strategic location allows Yandaro to offer their services to over 3,000 local coffee producers. 

The average coffee producer in the area tracks their coffee harvest not by the amount of land they cultivate on, but by the number of individual coffee trees they have -- embodying the true definition of a smallholder farmer. The average producer in Kayanza has 250 coffee trees, with each tree yielding just over 3 lbs of cherry annually (which will yield less than 0.5 lbs of roasted coffee!). 

Coffee cherries are meticulously hand-picked during harvest, a task primarily undertaken by the families themselves. Due to the small scale of their operations, it is not common for farmers to hire outside help for picking. Given the relatively small scale of production, it is meaningful for producers to have access to a washing station like Yandaro, where their coffee can be consolidated with their neighbors' for sale to international markets while still retaining a sense of place in the cup. Greenco and Yandaro also provide additional services to producers, such as agronomy training, that are designed to maximize the value that they receive for their coffee.