Support Smallholder Coffee Farmers in Tanzania

Kilimanjaro coffee farmers welcome VIP guests to witness success of KILICAFE

When Tanzanian farmer Martin Urio says, “the first question I ask is, ‘where will I sell my crop this year?’”, he isn’t referring to the physical location of the market. With coffee, one of the world’s most heavily-traded and volatile commodities, the market changes daily – the price of a bag of coffee being sold today may differ greatly from a bag sold yesterday, even when both are of identical quality and origin. Moreover, as many farmers rely on middlemen to transport and sell their coffee, they seldom have a means of knowing whether the price they receive is anywhere near the “real” price paid by the buyer. It’s not surprising then that smallholder farmers like Martin often feel they’re being taken advantage of.

In Tanzania, TechnoServe is working to bring the coffee market closer to the coffee farmer. TechnoServe has enabled farmers in groups like Sing’isi Meru Rural Cooperative Society, which is nestled in the lush, volcanic foothills near Mt. Kilimanjaro, to rest easy, knowing they will always receive a price that reflects the true value of their coffee.

Sing’isi is a member of the Association of Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffee Growers (KILICAFE), which provides marketing, credit, quality control and training services to groups of smallholder farmers. Since 2001, TechnoServe has been assisting KILICAFE to cultivate a network of groups across Tanzania, to leverage this network and attract specialty coffee buyers, and to reward farmers with premium prices.

KILICAFE succeeds by marketing each of its groups’ coffee distinctly, rather than bulking all groups’ coffee together irrespective of quality. This creates a strong price incentive for farmers to invest in improving quality and production.

Naturally, higher prices encourage more and more farmers to become members. After joining KILICAFE in 2004, Sing’isi has seen its membership rise from around 50 to over 300 farmers. The group’s manager, Naiman Kyungai, explains, “Before joining KILICAFE, our group was part of a large union of cooperatives that would buy up all our coffee each year. This arrangement was fine when the world market price was high, but when the price dropped we would be forced to pay for other groups’ debts and losses. In 2000 we left the cooperative union after they failed to pay us for the second time. This experience made us distrustful of other cooperatives and private buyers, so we chose to transport and sell our coffee direct to the national auction, which was expensive and also came at a time when the world price was very low. Many farmers became discouraged and it was in this difficult state that KILICAFE found us.”

Sing’isi has since repaired its coffee washing station, and received various training workshops from KILICAFE to boost members’ confidence, production and business skills. On July 31, 2006, their turnaround attracted regional attention when Janet Museveni, Uganda’s First Lady, visited Sing’isi alongside a team of 50 Ugandan farmers. Kyungai says that Mrs. Museveni was very impressed by her visit to Sing’isi because most Ugandan farmers grow Robusta coffee instead of Arabica and do not employ central pulpery technology.

Even still, Kyungai says the media attention only confirms what Sing’isi farmers know already. “I haven’t had to explain the benefits of this new arrangement to anyone. The farmers see the benefits immediately – they don’t need any convincing.”