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Sunday, September 3, 2017

Mbozi coffee farmers given tips on profit making ways

MERALI CHAWE in Mbozi
WHILE coffee is compared to gold in value, farmers have been cautioned that they will continue to be poor and fail to succeed economically, if they continue to sell their coffee to low cost buyers popularly known as ‘wakata vichwa.’
Project Manager of Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung Africa Limited (HRNS), Mr Webster Miyanda, said this while handing CPU machine worth more than ten million shillings to coffee farmers of Nambinzo Depot in Mbozi District.
He said coffee farmers are working hard, sweating in the sun, but they are benefiting other people from outside the district who buy their product at a very low cost, leaving them swimming in poverty.
“You find somebody comes here with nothing, he buys coffee from you at a very low price and you praise him for his hard worker, he came here with nothing but now he owns a car,” he noted.
Mr Miyanda said that for the farmers to benefit from their coffee they should work in groups in processing coffee, including during drying, piercing and selling it. “If you cannot work together for your own development, will you really be able to develop the country?” he questioned.
Moreover, he said coffer buyers outside Mbozi do not benefit them because if they sell coffee at the auction, the circulation of money does not return to the district, saying that if they could organise themselves groups, the money circulation will return to Mbozi and help to develop other economic activities.
Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) in Southern Highland Zone official, Mr Zani Edmund, said in order to have the quality required, they need to process coffee together in their groups and if they want to get more profit they must increase their production.
One of Nambinzo coffee farmers, Ms Matlida Sanga, said the machine which they received from HRNS will help them improve quality of the coffee.
“We have already seen the benefit of working in groups and this machine has the capacity of piercing 500 kilos per hour, which will be of great help,” she said.

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