Mkulima Kwanza AMCOS is a co-op started in collaboration with Communal Shamba LTD, a social enterprise founded solely by young Tanzanians. The co-op have sought to differentiate by consolidating and streamlining the traditional value chain for smallholder coffee production, as well as through pioneering processing techniques to diversify their offering and open new markets.
Communal Shamba works with a number of farmers groups (known in Tanzania as Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies, or AMCOS’) in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, Mbeya Region, Mbozi District. Most the farmer groups are part of the Ihowa Community. This year, with the collective help of Olam Specialty and our customers, Communal Shamba paid the highest cherry price in the region almost 80% higher than the standard local market price. Communal Shamba have engaged in a number of community projects such as rehabilitating the local school and a broad scope health project tackling (including lobbying staffing, clean water storage, computers, refrigeration and sterilizing units.
Status
Spot
Origin
Tanzania
Subregion
Mbozi, Mbeya
Harvest Season
2021/22
Producer Type
Cooperative
Processing
Natural/Dry Processed
Plant Species
Arabica
Coffee Grade
TZA CA NAT FAQ
Bag Weight
60 KG BAG
Bag Types
Grain Pro / Ecotact
The Process
Ripe cherries are carefully sorted to select the highest quality and then dried in the sun on raised African beds for an average of 14 days.
Specialty Naturals are a unique process from this region in Southern Tanzania, and we are proud to be working with Communal Shamba at the forefront of this pioneering supply chain.
History of Coffee in Tanzania
Taking the average number of bags exported annually 2007-2017—to account for crop fluctuations—Tanzania experienced an increase of 11 percent over the previous 10 years. That might not seem like much until you consider that only two other African countries have experienced growth by the same measure, Ethiopia (37%) and Uganda (1%). Tanzania broke the million bags exported ceiling for the first time in 2009 and did it again in 2013. This increase in exports has coincided with a near 600 percent increase in domestic coffee consumption over twenty years. The only coffee growing country to experience a more dramatic increase is Vietnam, where domestic coffee consumption has grown by 700 percent over the same period.
