By Staff Writer
THE Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) is working process and needed preparations to stage the 2023 Coffee Festival, the key event for the metamorphosis of the country’s coffee sector.
Shelved to take shape from October 27 to 29 in Moshi Town of Kilimanjaro Region, the envisaged gathering is expected to attract the potential coffee stakeholders and the relevant pundits from across the country.
The Director General (DG) of the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) Mr. Primus Kimaryo told this publication during an interview that the annually staged event was projected to play pivotal role to heighten the performance of the economic sector, especially in attracting more coffee consumers as well as production.
He informed, as part to scale-up the sector, the Board is currently working viable strategies to produce at least 20,000 tons of coffee seedlings yearly, being with a patriotic eye to equip the involved growers with enough, but improved seeds varieties.
“By managing to produce the said 20,000 tons annually, we will automatically stand a better chance to heighten production to the tune of 300,000 tons,” Mr Kimaryo assured.
Together with that, he communicated further that Board was envisioning boosting the earnings among the coffee farmers through the possible way of increasing the number of coffee trees and quality.
The TCB’s Chief Boss also unveiled that consumption of coffee in Tanzania has significantly increased from five to seven percent and the goal is to have the percentage rise to at least 15 percent by 2025/26.
“The present average production of the prestigious- strategic crop in Tanzania has elevated to an impressive tune, from 50,000 tons to 82,000 tons,” he stated.
Despite of registering the encouraging development, he however said the sector is haunted by the number of upsets, including poor adoption of recommended agronomic practices among the growers, together with failure to make use of proper fertilizers.
“Severe effects of climate change are also retarding the smooth thrive of the sector, whereby some of the farmers are still maintaining oldest coffee trees in their farms, leading to poor yields,” he expressed.
To repair the situation, he said the Board was planning to embark on a special strategy to help imparting the extensional officers with the needed most knowledge in growing the crop.
Despite topping the East and Central Africa (EAC) countries for harboring many processing industries and in value addition for the instant coffee, Tanzania still lags behind when it comes to coffee consumption.
It is for this reason, according to him, the Board is mulling to establish equipped coffee cafeterias at different popular universities, and the others middle colleges across the country.
Tanzania stands among the excelling coffee producers in the world, producing one of the best coffee beans varieties in the world, like Colombian Mild.
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