Migoti Coffee Company is a vision of Dan Brose, conceived in 2015 during long car trips across Burundi with Pontien Ntunzwenimana, a local engineer. Their vision is to connect local Burundian coffee farmers, through quality coffee processing and transparent supply chains, with buyers and roasters from around the world. Dan and Pontien, both born in Burundi, desire to see coffee-producing communities economically transformed, with coffee as a catalyst for the growth. Trained as engineers, Pontien and Dan have a clear understanding of how to build, operate and continually improve systems. Dan’s many years of experience in business and humanitarian development work, and Pontien’s childhood roots in a coffee-producing community make them a powerful team to partner with the local community for long-term transformation. Prior to 2015, the multi-generational coffee farmers in Pontien’s home community had all but abandoned coffee as a source of income due to the 12 year civil war (1993-2005) when their Arabica coffee trees were neglected and destroyed. Another challenge was the great distance between their small farms and washing stations, which led many farmers to process lower quality coffee on their farms.

With peace in the country and a state-of-the-art coffee washing station that Pontien built in 2016, the local community has new-found hope for the future and farmers are excited to invest in their coffee farms. Pontien’s first full year of green coffee production in 2016 proved the local coffee to be some of the best in Burundi, and Pontien continues to work with local farmers to improve quality and quantity in order to build a brighter future for their families and the next generation. Quality coffee production is just one of the entrepreneurial projects that Pontien has planned in his community. He and Dan are actively developing a small hydropower plant to provide low-cost renewable energy to the local community and to the coffee washing station. He is investigating new crops for the coffee farmers to inter crop with their coffee trees – such as essential oil crops which will be processed into essential oils at Migoti Mountain. And he is planning to build an eco-lodge at the Migoti Mountain site for tourists who want to visit this beautiful part of Burundi and to learn about the origins of coffee and essential oils.