Snags ahead of 100,000 tonne coffee production target

Moshi.The national target to increase coffee production to a record 100,000 tonnes in the next four years may not be realized without addressing snags inhibiting the industry.

The minister for Agriculture Japhet Hasunga insists the drive should start with uprooting the told coffee trees and replacing them with the high yielding and disease resistant varieties.

"Most of the varieties now grown are vulnerable to disease and pest attacks, consequently with low yields", he said here on Tuesday when launching new guidelines on coffee production.

He said new agronomic techniques including growing newly-introduced varieties as recommended by the experts of the cash crop would see increased yields.

The minister challenged the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) and the  Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) to ensure new varieties o the coffee trees were distributed to the farmers.

"This should be done soonest if we want to modernize our agriculture for the benefit of our economy", he said during an event held at TaCRI offices at Lyamungo.

Mr. Hasunga admitted production of coffee, once the leading export cash crop for Tanzania, need  major revamp  due to the declining earning to the economy.

"At most this is a loss making venture. Our coffee farming has dropped from commercial agriculture to subsistence undertaking", he warned, challenging TCB and TaCRI to spearhead the change.

Recent statistics from the Moshi-based TCB said coffee exports for 2019/2020  season would be 50,000 tonnes, down from  68,000 tonnes in 2018/2019.

It is estimated that only two per cent of the coffee produced in the country is consumed locally because of the low coffee drinking culture. The larger quantities are for the export market.

Declining production has, however, been largely attributed to the low prices of the commodity in the world market. This has frustrated the local producers with some ditching coffee farming.

According to TCB acting director general Primus Kimaryo export price of the crop remains low at $ 2 to $ 1.5 per kilogramme of Arabica and Robusta coffee respectively.

Until the year 2000, coffee used to contribute at least five per cent of Tanzania's export earnings with Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions accounting for 20 per cent of the exports.

By 2010, the country's share in the global coffee had shrinked to a mere 0.8 per cent though Tanzania is ranked third after Kenya and Ethiopia in the export of Arabica coffee.

Speaking at the event, the Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner Anna Mghwira said coffee production would be boosted if reliable markets were secured, abroad and internally.

"The yields may have gone down but the quality of our coffee still remains high", she said, calling on the relevant crop authorities to assist the farmers sustain coffee growing.

TaCRI director general Dr. Deusdedith Kilambo said the institute will soon release new varieties of coffee seedlings, some of  which are drought resistant.

He told the minister that nine varieties of the crop are still on trials and indications are that three of them have proved they can do well in Rombo, Tarime, Buhigwe and Mbozi districts.