Coffee production in Tanzania is highly improving with production reported to be increasing by more than 20,000 tons in a season.
The Japanese are the leading drinkers of Tanzanian coffee with Tokyo importing nearly 30 percent of the beverage beans from Dar-es-Salaam.
Germany and Italy come second with each country buying 13 percent of coffee produce from Tanzania. Belgium is fourth with 8 percent of the coffee shipments.
People in the United States of America also drink coffee from accounting for more than 5 percent of the country’s exports; Morocco also loves coffee from these shores, also accounting for 5 percent, followed by South Africa (3 Percent), Sweden (2 Percent) and Russia (2 Percent),
Farm outputs have on the other hand, jumped up from 66,837 tons realized in fiscal year 2020/21 to 82,500 tons as of now; this is according to the Director General (DG) of the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB), Primus Kimaryo.
Kimaryo believes that Tanzania has never experienced such impressive development in the sector since the country’s independence.
Speaking during the 13th edition of the Tanzania Coffee Stakeholders Meeting in Dodoma Kimaryo added that even coffee seedlings production is experiencing an upward trend.
During the 2019/2020 season, production of the seedlings was at 7,059,836 whereby in 2020/21 the amount increased to 11, 388,474 seedlings.
That is due to effective cooperation between the Coffee Board and the seed Institutes from in both the public and private sectors.
The Ministry of Agriculture has worked to strengthen coffee markets systems and prices, the development which has resulted in an increase in the prices of the crop among the growers at the local markets from 1,300/- per Kg from 2022/2022 season to 2,000/-.
Despite positive development, the coffee production sector is still facing various challenges including effects of climate change.
Still, Tanzania is working to launch a special program intending to increase the production of coffee inputs from the current 20 million seedlings to at least 40 million seedlings.
That is because the country’s agriculture sector demands up to 60 million coffee seedlings and counting.
Tanzania stands among the best coffee producers in the world, producing one of the top quality varieties such as the Colombian Mild.