By Desire Nimubona Bloomberg December 11, 2011 Burundi’s coffee growers threatened to stop selling produce unless they are granted a controlling stake in the East African nation’s washing stations, said Joseph Ntirampeba, president of the farmers’ association. The country started selling its coffee-washing and purification plants to closely held companies in 2009, with Webcor Ltd., a Swiss company, buying 13 stations. Burundi in November said it plans to sell the remaining 133 stations. Farmers should hold a controlling stake in the plants as they have paid a tax of 60 Burundian francs ($0.04) per kilogram of coffee cherries since the 1980s to pay for the construction of the stations, Ntirampeba, who leads the National Federation of Coffee-Growing Associations of Burundi, known as CNAC, said by phone Dec. 9 from Bujumbura, the capital. “We are not ready to give our coffee freely when we are not really involved,” he said. “Coffee is our business, our efforts,...