About This Coffee
Kaderes Peasants Development PLC (KPD) is a coffee cooperative located in Karagwe, Kagera formed to support Robusta farmers in region. Established in January 2008 by the Karagwe Development and Relief Services (KADERES), an NGO based in the region, KPD has grown from 34 members at their founding to over 4,000. Their meteoric growth is testament to ptheir success in opening new markets for their member’s high-quality, FTO Robusta.
Cultivation
Farmers are almost entirely small scale and cultivate coffee on an average farm size of around 2.5 hectares, of which around 0.8 hectares is under coffee.
The majority of members are native Wanyambo who practice intercropping. Most of the crops they grow are for the family’s consumption.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Since farmers process cherry on their own farms, processing methods can vary. However, all cherry is handpicked, sorted and then laid to dry, typically on raised beds.
KPD collects dried cherry and transports it the dry mill to be prepared for export. By collecting dried cherry directly, KPD increases the final price farmers receive for their crop.
About Kagera
Kagera sits in the northwest corner of Tanzania, just south of Uganda. The region shares a border with Rwanda. The majority of Tanzania’s Robusta coffee (30% of the country’s overall coffee production) is grown in Kagera.
Coffee in Tanzania
Coffee’s roots in Tanzania can be traced via oral history back to the Haya tribe of Northwest Tanzania in the 16th century. Following German and then British colonial rule, the Tanzanian coffee industry has undergone many transformations and adjustments in an effort to create the most equal, profitable and high-quality coffee possible. Today, our in-country partner, Sucafina Tanzania, is invested in improving the coffee and the lives of smallholder farmers through a variety of initiatives.
Coffee in Tanzania was grown almost exclusively in the North for a long time. The Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Tarime, Kagera, Kigoma and Karatu/Ngorongoro regions were prized for their ideal Arabica growing conditions. At the time, coffee production was so concentrated in the north that Moshi, a northern municipality, was the only hub for all coffee milling and sales.
Operations in Moshi grew to truly massive proportions in the 1950s and early-1960s. Since both Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi were under British rule in the post-war decades, Moshi was the second milling and sales hub (after Nairobi, Kenya) for British coffee production.
Coffee cultivation has extended southwards in recent years. In addition to the historical powerhouse regions in the north, coffee is now also grown in the southern regions of Ruvuma and Mbeya/Mbozi. Most Southern expansion of coffee growing occurred in the 1970s and 1980s and was encouraged by two projects supported by European backers. In an ironic twist, today 75 to 85% of total coffee production in Tanzania today comes from farms in the south.