BUJUMBURA March 28th (ABP) – The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Burundi, Evariste Ndayishimiye analyzed a note on setting the price for cherry coffee producers, presented by the Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Prosper Dodiko, according to the press release from the Secretary General of State Jérôme Niyonzima.
The producer price includes key parameters including coffee production by quality, the level of coffee prices, quality differentials, production costs for different links in the coffee sector, development costs for the coffee sector, municipal tax and finally the exchange rate of the American dollar against the Burundian franc. After analysis of the elements contained in the note, the Cabinet retained the minimum price of 1,380 Fbu per kilogram of cherry A, but which could be revised after analysis of the price structure by a team which will be set up.
During that meeting, the draft decree withdrawing land granted to the company Tanganyika Tile industry (TTI) was also adopted and presented by the Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock. As part of increasing production, creating jobs and encouraging investors, the State of Burundi had granted land of 48 ha 50 ares 33ca for a period of 50 years to Tanganyika Tile industry for a tile manufacturing project. That land is located in Kagwema, in Gihanga commune, Bubanza province. Since 2015 to date, the company has done nothing to realize that project that it had proposed to the government.
For that reason, it is proposed that the land return to the private domain of the State to be used for other development projects.
At the end of the analysis, the draft decree was adopted with observations and recommendations. All State land located around that land must be identified for their protection and return to the State. For cases of termination of contracts, they must always be accompanied by a legal opinion from the Ministry of Justice, prohibit the establishment of industries in areas favorable to agriculture as well as their development, identify non-fertile places for that purpose to make them areas of industrial attraction. Identify land which has been transferred by the State but which has not been developed according to the purpose for which it was requested, with a view to returning it to the domain of the State. For the land to be granted to investors for their projects, it will be necessary to adapt the surface area of the land to the size of the activity.