|
Tanzanian Coffee:
Tanzania coffee ranks as the 8th one in Africa and as 24th
in the world. Approximately 70% of coffee produced in Tanzania
is Arabica. Coffee in Tanzania is harvested in the months
of October to February.
Small farmers grow most Tanzanian coffee - 95 percent of
the country's coffee is grown by 400,000 subsistence-scale
coffee farmers cultivating on less than five acres. Typically,
the farmers grow the coffee in a passive-organic manner
under banana trees as one of several cash and subsistence
crops. The yields of a typical coffee tree in Tanzania are
comparatively low. The rest comes from nationalized estates
that have been rehabilitated in recent years after much
neglect. Coffee is a major crop in Tanzania and important
to their economy.
Although coffee is Tanzania's largest export crop, the
small-scale farmers have not reaped the benefits because
of government policies that have restricted their direct
access to the international coffee market. Farmers are required
to sell their export coffee through the government-run Moshi
Coffee Auction, which, because of its 22,000 lb. export
minimum, prevents the farmers from reaping the full profit
from their coffee. Instead, much of the profit goes to middlemen
or is absorbed into the inefficiencies of the system.
_____________________________________________________
|
