This archive report was first published on 18 November 2019.
Published on November 18, 2019, Tanzania's government has unveiled a strategy to revive the country's coffee sector, with ambitious plans to increase production to 100,000 tonnes in the next four years.
According to Deputy Minister for Agriculture Omary Mgimba, the sector's poor performance is largely due to poor farming methods and low prices in the world market.
To stimulate production, the government has scrapped 17 levies and taxes imposed on coffee, making it more attractive for new farmers to join the industry.
Some 10,000 hectares of land have been set aside for both small and large-scale farmers, with the government providing 10 million seedlings of new high-yield varieties to boost production.
The government will also launch a campaign to uproot old coffee trees and replace them with the new varieties, which are less vulnerable to diseases and pests.
Tanzania has already earned $123 million this year from coffee exports, with the sector contributing at least five per cent of the country's export earnings until 2000.
Under the new strategy, the government is also lobbying local and foreign investors to set up coffee processing factories in the country, with the aim of increasing value addition and reducing reliance on exports.
