Coffee sector looks beyond the bean
MOSHI: TANZANIA Coffee Board (TCB) is pushing coffee farmers and industry players to turn waste and by-products into commercial products as the government seeks to deepen value addition and raise earnings across the coffee value chain.
TCB Acting Director General, Mr Kajiru Kisenge said the coffee crop remained highly profitable because its commercial potential extends beyond its traditional use as a beverage.
“The coffee crop continued to be highly profitable due to the fact that apart from being a beverage crop, it also has other commercially profitable products,” he said over the weekend during the launch of the seventh edition of the Kahawa Festival in Moshi, Kilimanjaro.
TCB is expanding education and training programmes aimed at helping farmers and other stakeholders diversify their income through value-added coffee products.
Mr Kisenge said the TCB, working with partners including the Tanzania Coffee Association (TCA) and Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TARI/TaCRI) was training stakeholders to process and utilise coffee waste and by-products instead of discarding them.
Moshi District Commissioner, Mr Godfrey Mnzava urged coffee stakeholders to align production with market demand, saying this would strengthen the crop’s contribution to the economy and support the country’s long-term development ambitions under Vision 2050.
“Coffee is one of the country’s strategic crops,” Mnzava said, urging stakeholders to use the government’s roadmap to ensure the sector continues to contribute significantly to the national economy.
Kahawa Festival organising Committee Chairman Mr Denis Mahulu said the event had expanded in recent years, attracting more exhibitors and visitors from Tanzania and abroad and positioning it as an important platform for the international coffee industry.
The festival has also helped create employment opportunities by identifying skilled baristas through competitions, he said.
Mr Mahulu said increased awareness generated through the festival had encouraged some stakeholders to establish coffee shops and mobile coffee outlets, helping lift domestic coffee consumption to 15 per cent from about seven per cent several years ago.
This year’s festival, themed ‘Coffee is part of the solution, building prosperity through partnerships,’ will run from October 8 to 10.
TCB Director of Coffee Quality and Promotion Frank Nyarusi said the three-day event would bring together farmers, processors, exporters and other players to showcase products and discuss technology, innovation and sustainable development in the coffee sector.
