Tanzania to patent its coffee for protection, higher quality...to curb smuggling from outside

A farmer picks coffee on her farm. Tanzania will export its coffee with an exclusive trademark. Photo/FILE NATION MEDIA GROUP
By ADAM IHUCHA Special Correspondent

Posted Saturday, August 10 2013 at 09:19
IN SUMMARY

• Africa’s fourth-largest coffee producer after Ethiopia, Uganda and Ivory Coast, it will soon export its coffee with an exclusive trademark.
• Experts hope the patent will also curb rampant coffee smuggling, particularly in the Kagera region, in the north of Tanzania. The region neighbours Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, and lies across Lake Victoria from Kenya.
• Industry sources said the smugglers are syndicates with large sums of money available across the Tanzania and Uganda border.

Tanzania is in the process of patenting its coffee to protect originality, improve quality and bolster the crop’s competitiveness on the world market.

Africa’s fourth-largest coffee producer after Ethiopia, Uganda and Ivory Coast, it will soon export its coffee with an exclusive trademark.

The Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) is finalising talks with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to patent the crop.

WIPO is one of 17 UN specialised agencies established in 1967, to foster intellectual property rights — patents, copyrights, trademarks and designs.

“The move will not only protect Tanzanian coffee’s originality, but also control its quality and enhance competitiveness of the crop on the global market,” TCB director general Adolph Kimburu said.

Experts hope the patent will also curb rampant coffee smuggling, particularly in the Kagera region, in the north of Tanzania. The region neighbours Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, and lies across Lake Victoria from Kenya.

One-third of Kagera’s annual haul of 10,000 tonnes of coffee is lost through smuggling. The crop is illegally exported to Uganda, where it is repackaged and exported.

Industry sources said the smugglers are syndicates with large sums of money available across the Tanzania and Uganda border.

Tanzania has lost millions of dollars in revenue to coffee smuggling.

Two weeks ago, President Jakaya Kikwete directed Kagera’s regional authorities to tackle the issue of coffee smuggling.

Kagera Robusta and natural Arabica coffees grown in the region make up 25 per cent of 40,000 tonnes of Tanzania’s annual coffee output.

With $180 million earned annually, coffee is Tanzania’s largest cash crop, sustaining over 440,000 families.

Production of the crop is concentrated in several geographic areas — Kilimanjaro, Arusha, and Tarime District in the west, Kigoma and Kagera regions in the south, and Mbeya, Iringa and Ruvuma regions in southern highlands.

Despite having large tracts of volcanic soils suitable for high quality coffee farming, Tanzania’s production of coffee has stagnated at 40,000 metric tonnes a year over the past three decades.

The country has 4.8 million hectares of land suitable for coffee farming, of which only 200,000 hectares, about 35 per cent, are utilised


Industry players say Tanzania has not fully utilised its huge market potential compared with other countries producing Colombian mild Arabica coffee and Bukoba’s Robusta. Bukoba is now considered one of the world’s top qualities of Robusta.

More than 95 per cent of Tanzania’s coffee is exported. The country’s standards are high.

The TCB’s 10-year strategy aims at a 50 per cent increase in coffee production to 80,000 tonnes a year by 2016, and up to 100,000 tonnes by 2021.

The envisaged increase will see improved quality from the current 35 per cent share of premium coffee, to at least 70 per cent of the total national coffee production.

Tanzania mainly produces Arabica and Robusta coffee. The country’s Arabica normally goes to the New York market, while Robusta ends up in London.

Yaani kila nchi ni Wajanja zaidi yetu? kwahiyo ata UGANDA labda sio wa PILI kwa Mauzo ya KAHAWA labda ni kwasababu ya kuiibia KAGERA