The Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) has marginally increased the price of coffee offered to small-scale farmers in Tarime District, Mara Region.
TCB Mara Zonal Office has confirmed that the price of unclean coffee has climbed from 700/- per kilogramme to 850/- in the recent days .
“The coffee price is improving, although very marginally. The price has now risen from 700/- to 850 /- per kilo,” TCB Mara Regional Zone Manager, Mr Melikiad Massawe, told the’ Daily News’ over the weekend.
Coffee prices offered to famers dropped from about 2,000/- per kilo last year to 700 /- during the past several months. TCB apportioned the fall in local coffee prices to a drastic fall in the commodity’s price on the world market, adding that this has widely disappointed thousands of farmers in Tarime district.
“The price is still unattractive owing to the falling coffee price on the world market,” the official said. Mara Region’s biggest cooperative union, known as GAMAKU, is scheduled to start buying coffee in the district after securing a loan from a local commercial bank.
The new development, he said, will create competition among buyers, a move that was likely to witness further increase in the price of coffee. “GAMAKU has already acquired a 500m/- loan from a bank and they will start buying coffee from farmers, after which they will sell it directly at coffee auctions,” Mr Massawe said.
“We expect the price to continue going up because of emerging competition. There has been only one buyer in Tarime District since the beginning of this season,” he added.
Tarime is the largest producer of Arabica coffee in Mara Coffee Zone comprising Geita, Mwanza and Mara regions. Officials said the zone had about 8,000 coffee growers, some of whom were reportedly threatening to abandon cultivating the cash crop, citing poor prices.
TCB has been working hard to ensure that falling coffee prices on the global market does not negatively impact Tanzania’s coffee sector , according to TCB Director General, Adolph Kumburu. Coffee is one of the cash crops with significant contribution to national development.
The coffee regulatory board (TCB) keeps farmers updated in a bid to avert cheating loopholes from dishonest buyers.
It is now possible for farmers to access indicative prices issued by TCB over the phone at any time even in remote areas, thanks to the country’s fast-growing telecommunication sector. Tanzania is Africa’s fourth largest coffee producer after Ethiopia, Uganda and Ivory Coast.
By MUGINI JACOB, Tanzania Daily News
