Coffee news: Tanzania's Coffee Perspectives

"There's a fear we may not hit the 45,000 tonnes level, because of the prolonged drought especially in the north," told Leslie Omari, chief executive of Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB).

Poor rainfall across eastern Africa is already threatening at least 6 million people with famine and has already led to power cuts in Tanzania.

In the 2004/05 crop season, Tanzania produced 52,000 tonnes of coffee which Omari attributed to a bumper harvest in the southern parts of the country.

Omari said the board had not yet come up with new estimates following the drought but added that he expected farmers' earnings to remain bullish.

Although the projections may be lower than last year's figure, they may hit about more than $40 million. The east African country earned $49 million from coffee exports in the 2004/05 season.

Tanzania mainly grows Arabica coffees, but also has Robusta, which do well in areas that receive an annual average rainfall of between 1000 and 2000 mm. Mild Arabica was currently fetching an average price of $2 per kg, compared with $1 per kg the previous season. Robusta is fetching an average price of $1 per kg compared with an average of about $0.50 per kg in the previous season.

"This has actually quietened the farmers, that's why you don't see them yelling here and there," Omari said. "In fact this one has actually been a motivation to produce more and it's only the weather which is a disappointment."
As about boost production: so far, the Board had received 32,000 tonnes for the current crop and that the final production tally would be given in March.

The board aims to boost the country's average annual coffee production substantially from its current level of about 50,000 tonnes by distributing six million seedlings, which will start in three years' time.

"If everything goes well, our projection by 2010 is that we should be able to reach an average yield, or at least a figure of 70,000 tonnes," Omari said.

To increase future production, TCB is working with selected farmers to grow seedlings for sale. The Bank of Tanzania said in its latest quarterly report that coffee contributed about 23 percent of the country's exports in the year ending November 2005.

Small-scale farmers produce about 80 percent of Tanzania's coffee, most of which is grown in the northern, southern and western part of the country in regions around Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria.