TCB outlines ways to promote coffee consumption

Moshi. The Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) has outlined ways to promote coffee drinking in the country.

These include opening coffee-drinking shops in prime areas of major towns and cities.

Another strategy is to introduce mobile coffee-drinking shops, preferably those using three-wheeled motorbikes.

The hope is that these and other strategies will increase coffee consumption in Tanzania to 15 percent from the current seven percent.

"Our target is that we raise coffee drinking to 15 percent by 2025/2026," said TCB managing director Primus Kimaryo.

He revealed this here recently during the visit of the deputy minister for Agriculture David Silinde, to TCB head offices in Moshi.

The institutions of higher learning, which normally have large gatherings, are being targeted as the key points of sale.

"The bottom line is to inculcate the culture of coffee drinking in our communities, which remains low," he said.

Under the drive, the state-run board would sponsor the training of small traders who would roll out coffee drinking in designated areas.

The training will include best practices employed in other countries in the preparation and sale of the stimulant.

According to Mr Kimaryo, the drive would also widen the local market for coffee, which is 90 percent dependent on the export market.

"We have to do away with the narrative that coffee drinking is for foreigners," the TCB boss pointed out.

He added that there had been an equally disturbing narrative that coffee drinking has some health hazards.

"If the drive is successful, increased drinking of the stimulant will boost coffee sales in the local market," he explained.

He said major hotels and restaurants have often been implored to set aside designated areas for coffee drinking.

"There had been a positive response to this, especially in big cities such as Dar es Salaam," he said, noting that youths were now attracted, unlike in the past.

The drive will go along with efforts to increase coffee production to 300,000 tonnes a year in 2025/26 season.

For many years in recent decades, coffee production in Tanzania averaged about 50,000 tonnes. Now production is 79,000 tonnes annually.

Speaking at the TCB offices, Mr Silinde challenged the board and other stakeholders to ensure the 300,000-tonne target is reached.

He warned that continued dependency on the export market was risky for the coffee farmers whenever prices in the world market tumbled.