Coffee, cotton export-earnings dip

Dar es Salaam. Low production of coffee and cotton in the country affected the exports of traditional produces last year despite improved prices in the world market.

This is according to the Bank of Tanzania’s Monthly Economic Review for January, 2021.

It shows that the value of traditional exports decreased to $819.1 million in 2020 from $834.6 million recorded in 2019.

The bank named the decline in coffee and cotton values among the exports that impacted the overall country’s traditional export. Other crops were tea and sisal.

“The decline in coffee and cotton value manifested in export volume, following low production while sisal and tea exports declined on account of both low volume and prices,” the report reads in part.

However, the two cash crops were among the commodities that saw an increase in price in the world market.

There was an improvement of 15 percent on the world market prices for Arabica coffee in December last year to $3.3 per kilogramme from $2.9 charged in the corresponding month in 2019.

Cotton experienced an increase in its monthly prices from $1.7 in November to $1.8 in December 2020.

“The price of cotton increased as demand picked up due to economic recovery particularly in China–the major cotton importer. Meanwhile, price of Arabica coffee increased on account of improved demand,” the central bank says.

Coffee is one of the mostly widely consumed and demanding beverages in the world, and one of the major cash crops in Tanzania.

In an auction done during November 2020, it was reported that farmers were selling their coffee in the local market as prices were far better than in the world market.

A 50-kilogramme bagful of Arabica coffee was fetched at $133 at the auction on November 5, while the world market offered $116 for the bag of the same weight.

Regarding Robusta coffee, a 50kg bag of the commodity fetched $78.5 locally in contrast to $51 in foreign markets, notably in the United Kingdom where much of Tanzanian coffee is exported to.

However, in December the world prices came back to normal and provided an opportunity for local farmers to sell their coffee produce abroad.

The country’s coffee production in the 2020/2021 harvest season is expected to hit a record 70,000 tonnes, up from 59,000 tons in 2019/2020, according to the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB)’s sales and marketing manager, Frank Nyarusi who was quoted in a recent interview with The Citizen.