Gitesi is a private processing station owned and operated by a father and son team, Alexis and Eme Gaizi. The processing station was built in 2005 and began processing coffee in 2006, located in the Gitesi sector in the Western Province of Rwanda. In the early years, they struggled to keep the station running, and fought hard to make it a profitable business. They finally managed to turn a profit in 2010 and have since built a sustainable company. Alexis is from the Karongi area where Gitesi is located and his family has been growing coffee in the region for generations. Gitesi has very strong relationships with farmers in the local community, with over 1,800 coffee farmers who supply the berry to Gitesi. The station has also implemented a performance-based bonus system for farmers, so in addition to the usual payment for their coffee on delivery, they will be paid a bonus after the season ends so that Gitesi has time to document all shipments and which batches performed best and are eligible. to receive a bonus. Amy has an engineering degree and has created a very complex water treatment system for the station, to the point where it is being used to model future water treatment systems. Gitesi also has her own land where she grows coffee. The climate is relatively cool during most of the season in Rwanda, which helps control the fermentation process. The Penagos Eco grinder removes the skin, pulp and 70% of the mucus. Then the coffee is subjected to dry fermentation for 10-12 hours. After that, it is washed in channels, divided into two grades depending on the density, before being soaked under clean water in tanks for 16 hours. First, the coffee is taken to the pre-dryer, which is in the shade while the coffee is still damp, a lot of manual sorting is done, since defects are much easier to see at this stage. Coffee is dried on African beds for up to 21 days, during which time it is covered with a shade net during the hottest hours of the day, at night, and any time it rains.