About This Coffee
Kifufu Estate was once the highest yielding coffee farm in Africa. In 1972, the farm was nationalized and in 1980, coffee production ceased. In 2007, Africado Ltd Managing Director, James Parcom leased the farm and planted avocadoes.
Growing coffee at Kifufu Estate is a passion project for Parson and Africado Ltd. Parson has been growing coffee in Tanzania and Kenya for over 25 years. As an homage to the estate’s history, he planted 5 hectares of coffee on the estate.
Cultivation
Avocadoes are the main agricultural product on the estate. Batian variety trees are planted on 5 hectares of land.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherry is handpicked and then pulped on the farm’s disc pulper. Coffee is wet fermented for 24 hours, washed in clean water and laid on raised drying beds. Parchment is raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 2 weeks for parchment to dry.
About Batian
Developed by Kenya's Coffee Research Institute in 2010, Batian is named after the highest peak on Mt. Kenya and is resistant to both coffee berry disease (CBD) and coffee leaf rust (CLR). The variety has the added benefit of early maturity – cropping after only two years. Some challenges (such as vegetative structure) have prevented it from becoming widespread so far, but its popularity is certainly growing.
AA Grade
AA is the largest grade produced in Tanzania, denoting that the bean size is screen 17/18.
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.