Concern over Kilimanjaro coffee brand abuse

An official from Geneva-based Trade Centre, Mr Peter Gilson, who was on a ten-day visit of Tanzania, said here yesterday that the coffee brand name, Kilimanjaro, has been weakened through unmanaged usage.

Addressing participants of a coffee branding workshop here he said, in Japan, the Kilimanjaro brand was being used widely, but no credit was given to Tanzania, as the source.

He told the workshop participants that as far as brand issue was concerned, Kilimanjaro was not strongly linked to Tanzanian coffee, adding that, when properly managed; several Tanzanian brands could go all their way through to the end consumer.

The Trade Centre official stated that there were ‘hotspot’ brands that should be used in any overall brand strategy to provide reputation hits from the specialty coffee influencers, saying brands should try to hold their logo until the end.

During his visit to Tanzania, Mr Gilson found out that producers do not know where their coffee goes and therefore they do not know what to defend against exporters and others, adding that most people he talked to, with the exception of some estate brand owners, do not know where their coffee end up to.

Mr Gilson said his findings also found out that a labeling system need to be established to support new brands in new markets. 

Source: The Citizen, http://www.thecitizen.co.tz, reported by Mark Msoke in Arusha

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