About This Coffee
This FTO lot comes from our reliable partners in the Kyerwa District of the Kagera region, Tanzania’s main Robusta-producing area. Our quality assurance team cups numerous lots and carefully selects only the best. The result is a consistent blend that meets our strict standards for quality and cup profile.
While changes in purchasing guidelines and restrictions can create uncertainty and make it harder to ensure long-term benefits for farmers and cooperatives, Sucafina Tanzania is committed to sourcing Robusta at competitive prices that support a living income for farmers.
Cultivation
Robusta was introduced to the Haya Tribe in 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, Robusta represents around 25% of Tanzania’s total coffee production. Coffee is grown by smallholder farmers, cultivating plots ranging from 0.5 to 3 hectares and it is commonly intercropped with crops such as bananas or beans. Banana trees provide essential shade, creating ideal growing conditions for coffee.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Farmers handpick ripe cherry and process it on their farms. After intake, the cherry is sorted and laid out to dry, typically on raised beds. Once fully dried, it is delivered to Juhudi FTO and Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society Limited (AMCOS), where it is dry hulled and graded.
The coffee is then transported to Dar es Salaam for export preparation. At this stage, green coffee is cleaned using gravity tables, color sorters, and hand sorting to remove damaged beans and foreign matter. Every step follows strict quality procedures to maintain excellence throughout the value chain.
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.