Coffee board clarifies on markets

The management of Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) on Monday clarified on the difference between farmgate and secondary market prices to avoid distortion on information on grades of the crop.

TCB Director General, Eng. Adolph Kumburu, said in a statement that the farmgate was the market for farmers where growers sell their produce to licensed buyers in villages.

“The grade of coffee sold is in raw or unprocessed form usually for the case of Arabica is parchment coffee and for Robusta is dry cherry,” Mr Kumburu explained.

Eng. Kumburu said the raw coffee from the farmgate market undergoes processing by removing the husks and classified to recover green beans which are recognised in the world market.

“The throughput recovery depends on the type of coffee. For Arabica coffee, one kilogramme of parchment coffee yields an average of 0.8 kilo of clean coffee (20 per cent loss ). For Robusta coffee, one kilogramme of dry cherry yields an average of 0.5 kilo of clean coffee (50 per cent loss).

“This means to obtain one kilogramme of clean coffee you need 1.25 kilo of parchment coffee for Arabica and 2.0 kilos for Robusta, according to Eng. Kumburu.

Source: Daily News, reported by Peter Temba from Moshi, Tanzania

 

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