2023 Coffee Festival Slated For This Month in Moshi Town Of Kilimanjaro -

By
Valentine Oforo

THE
Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) is working process and needed preparations to stage
the 2023 Coffee Festival, the key event for the metamorphosis of the country’s coffee
sector.

Shelved
to take shape from October 27 to 29 in Moshi Town of Kilimanjaro Region, the envisaged
gathering is expected to attract the potential coffee stakeholders and the
relevant pundits from across the country.

The
Director General (DG) of the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) Mr. Primus Kimaryo
told this publication during an interview that the annually staged event was
projected to play pivotal role to heighten the performance of the economic
sector, especially in attracting more coffee consumers as well as production.

He
informed, as part to scale-up the sector, the Board is currently working viable
strategies to produce at least 20,000 tons of coffee seedlings yearly, being
with a patriotic eye to equip the involved growers with enough, but improved
seeds varieties.

“By
managing to produce the said 20,000 tons annually, we will automatically stand
a better chance to heighten production to the tune of 300,000 tons,” Mr Kimaryo
assured.

Together
with that, he communicated further that Board was envisioning boosting the
earnings among the coffee farmers through the possible way of increasing the
number of coffee trees and quality.

The
TCB’s Chief Boss also unveiled that consumption of coffee in Tanzania has
significantly increased from five to seven percent and the goal is to have the
percentage rise to at least 15 percent by 2025/26.

“The
present average production of the prestigious- strategic crop in Tanzania has
elevated to an impressive tune, from 50,000 tons to 82,000 tons,” he stated.

Despite
of registering the encouraging development, he however said the sector is
haunted by the number of upsets, including poor adoption of recommended
agronomic practices among the growers, together with failure to make use of
proper fertilizers.

“Severe
effects of climate change are also retarding the smooth thrive of the sector,
whereby some of the farmers are still maintaining oldest coffee trees in their
farms, leading to poor yields,” he expressed.

To
repair the situation, he said the Board was planning to embark on a special
strategy to help imparting the extensional officers with the needed most
knowledge in growing the crop.

Despite
topping the East and Central Africa (EAC) countries for harboring many
processing industries and in value addition for the instant coffee, Tanzania
still lags behind when it comes to coffee consumption.

It
is for this reason, according to him, the Board is mulling to establish
equipped coffee cafeterias at different popular universities, and the others
middle colleges across the country.

Tanzania
stands among the excelling coffee producers in the world, producing one of the
best coffee beans varieties in the world, like Colombian Mild.