Tanzania: TCB Targets 60,000 Tonnes Output

DESPITE the fall of coffee prices in the world market, local farmers' earnings are set to increase following Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) interventions in cutting down costs.
The move to boost farmers' earnings comes amid bumper harvest this season seeing output jumping to 60,000 tonnes compared to 40,000 tonnes last year.

It shows how much producers have actively invested in better crop management activities and technologies. The TCB Director General, Mr Adolf Kumburu, said in an interview yesterday that after a meeting with coffee stakeholders including the district councils, various duties and levies on coffee were slashed to 3.0 per cent, from 5 per cent; an initiative will cut down costs and boost farmers' earnings.

"The initiative is an incentive to coffee farmers to increase production particularly at times when world prices are seen falling," he said, adding that the move will lessen the magnitude of income fall.

He said in May and June, this year, world coffee prices declined to 3 US dollars from 5 US dollars per kilogramme in the recent months, thus impacting heavily on coffee farmers earnings.

As part of the interventions after reading the market trend, he said the board has been advising coffee farmers when to sell their coffee in order to fetch premium prices.

Tanzania is Africa's fourth largest coffee producer after Ethiopia, Uganda and Ivory Coast. According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly economic review, coffee prices in the world market declined largely due to weakening of the Brazilian currency against the US dollar, thus increasing coffee exports from Brazil, which is the world's largest coffee producer.

Coffee production in the world's biggest grower Brazil could fall to 44 million to 45.5 million 60-kg bags in 2015, in part due to the drop in robusta output.
The statistics show that output is down from the estimate of 48 million to 49 million bags and below most estimates gathered so far by other trade houses that range from 45.3 million bags to 49.75 million bags for the upcoming 2015/16 crop.