The Nemba washing station is located in Kayanza province. There are different points within the area where cherries are harvested from the more than 3,000 small growers in Kayanza. At each collection point there is an agronomist in charge of teaching good cultivation, care and harvesting practices to each of the producer families. The washing station is also in charge of providing organic fertilizers derived from the compost of the harvest. In addition, the washing station has a coffee "nursery", small coffee trees ready to be planted by these families in case they want to renovate their small farm. Each of these families owns approximately 250 coffee trees on their small piece of land, which means that they produce between 200 and 300 kilos of coffee cherries per year.
The process of this batch consists of the selection of the most ripe cherries at harvest and then a manual selection in the washing station where the defective or damaged cherries are separated. An additional selection is then made by floating in the water, where the less (float) dense cherries are separated from the denser (not float). Once this selection is finished, they are taken to African beds where they are placed in thin layers of cherries and stirred every day until reaching the desired humidity level.
