About This Coffee
225 of the approximately 775 members of Phoka Hills Planters’ Cooperative are female. This coffee is a blend of the products of their hard work. Importantly, the female producers who grew these lots were paid directly for their coffee.
Paying women for delivered coffee is a vital step toward gender equality. Without access to family finances—even when their hardwork contributes both directly and indirectly to earning that income—women are unable to access basic goods and services that can help them and their families. Such a situation also creates a power dynamic between husbands and wives where the husband can use his complete control over their finances—even the money his wife had helped him earn—as a tool to wield control over his wife.
About Mzuzu Coffee Planters Cooperative Union
Phoka Hill Planters’ Cooperative is one of the 6 cooperatives that form the Mzuzu Coffee Planters Cooperative Union. The union was established in the 1999.
Through the years, the union built their own washing stations, cupping laboratories with trained cuppers in each zone and one central cupping laboratory. They also have a central mill and hulling and storage facilities.
Thanks to their commitment to producing high-quality coffees, the union has been able to provide good living conditions, food security and access to good quality education to every smallholder coffee farming family who forms part of the Cooperative.
Coffee in Malawi
Coffee was first introduced to British-held Malawi by missionaries during the 1880s. During this time, commercial growing areas were mainly concentrated in Thyolo and Mulanje, in the South. Unlike in other East African colonies, coffee never quite took off in Malawi. Various factors, including the success of tobacco farming in the country, prevented the crop from becoming the mainstay that it was in its neighbours to the North, Tanzania and Kenya. It wasn’t until much later, post-independence, that the potential was seen.
Even today, coffee production in Malawi remains low. But what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. The landlocked country produces some lovely lots. Malawi neighbours Mozambique to its east and south, Zambia to its west and Tanzania to its north. The Mulanje Massif runs through the south of the country, which provides the river network with most of its water. Another important water source is Lake Malawi. In all, the country has all it needs to produce some exceptional coffee.