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.
Source: Daily News, reported by Sebastian Mrindoko, from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
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