TANZANIA earned 80 million US dollars (over 180bn/) from the sale of 65,000 tonnes of coffee collected in the 2018/19 crop season, Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) has said.

Speaking at the tenth National Coffee Stakeholders meeting here recently, TCB Director General Primus Kimaryo said 40,940 tonnes of coffee were sold through TCB Coffee Exchange, with the remaining 24,583 sold through Direct Coffee Export.

Robusta coffee dominated the direct export, with 19,399 tonnes, constituting 78.9 per cent while 5,183 tonnes of Arabica coffee made 21.1 per cent of the consignment.

Mr Kimaryo said although coffee production during the 2018/19 season was 65,000 tonnes, an increase of 30 per cent from the previous year’s 50,000 tonnes, prices in the world market were not favorable to farmers.

He challenged farmers across the country to put more emphasis on production of high quality coffee to fetch good prices in the world market in future seasons.

“Markets like Fair Trade after certification and organic coffee exports always offer lucrative prices… farmers should in future aim at those markets for they have stable and favorable prices,” he said.

Outlining how each coffee producing region fared during the season, Mr Kimaryo said Kagera led all regions, with production of 29,456.9 tonnes ahead of Ruvuma, Songwe and Kilimanjaro, which produced 16,104, 10,996 and 3,135.4 tonnes, respectively.

Other regions in the list with their produced tonnes of coffee in brackets were Mbeya (2,204.8), Arusha (1,985.6), Kigoma (1,264) and Mara (199.5).

Others were Tanga (100), Njombe (40.3), Iringa (21.7) and Manyara (14) while Morogoro and Katavi regions, each produced only two tonnes. Giving projections for the coming coffee buying season, Mr Kimaryo said the board anticipates production decline to 50,000 tonnes, with 20,000 tonnes of Robusta and 30,000 tonnes of Arabica coffee.

He attributed the production decline to fluctuating coffee cycle and delayed heavy rainfall season in the Northern Zone. The TCB chief named Japan as the leading consumer of Tanzanian coffee, with the Asian nation accounting for 27 per cent of the country’s coffee exports.

Germany, Belgium and Italy accounted for 17, 12 and 10 per cent, respectively while both Morocco and United States of America buy six per cent each. Israel, South Korea, Spain, USSR, India, South Africa and Sweden each consumed two per cent of the country’s coffee exports.

Source: Daily News

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