Gitesi is a private washing station owned and run by a father and son team, Alexis and Aime Gahizi. The washing station was built in 2005 and began processing coffee in 2006, it is located in the Gitesi sector in the Western Province of Rwanda. In the early years they were struggling to keep the washing station operating, and they have fought hard to make it a profitable business. Finally in 2010, they managed to turn a profit and have since built a sustainable company. Alexis is originally from the Karongi District where Gitesi is located, and his family has been growing coffee in this region for generations. Gitesi has very strong relationships with the farmers in the local community, there are over 1,800 coffee farmers who deliver cherry to Gitesi. The washing station has also implemented a bonus system for farmers based on performance, so besides the normal pay for their cherry directly at delivery they will be paid out a bonus after the season is wrapped up and Gitesi has had the time to document all delivery and which lots performed better and are eligible for the bonus. Aime has a degree in engineering and has created a very comprehensive water purification system for the washing station, to such an extent that it is being used to model future water purification systems for washing stations. Gitesi also has its own land on which it is growing coffee, with plans to expand this. As Aime explained, this is to both directly control and manage the quality of their production, and to ensure supply.
Aime and the staff at Gitesi are very competent, and trained in managing the delivery of cherry from the farmers. They have very strict routines for cherry reception and sorting, cherry delivered by farmers must be sorted by the farmers themselves, if this is not done sufficiently there are staff who will do further sorting. The cherries are placed in a tank prior to pulping where floaters are removed and processed separately as lower grade coffee. The coffee is then dry fermented for 10-12 hours. After this the parchment is graded and washed in channels, it is separated into two grades based on density before being soaked under clean water in tanks for 16 hours. The parchment is initially taken to pre-drying tables, which are under shade, and where, while the parchment is still wet, a lot of hand sorting is done as it is much easier to see defects at this point. The parchment is dried on African drying beds for up to 15 days, during which time the parchment is covered by shade net during the hottest hours of the day, at night, and anytime it rains.
