Bukoba — THE government is committed to support local investors in industrial sector to enable the country attain its industrialisation drive.
Agriculture and Irrigation Minister, Prof Adolf Mkenda made the remarks over the weekend when he visited Amimza Coffee Factory, located about 10 kilometers from Bukoba Municipal Council.
Equally, he appealed to coffee stakeholders including the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB), Tanzania Cooperative Commission (TCC) and Cooperative Unions to assist farmers to add value to the coffee crop through processing.
“The government is committed to assist local investors who have established industries to achieve the nation’s ambition of industrialisation. Efforts should also be made to assist farmers to add value to their crops,” he said.
AMIMZA Company Ltd Managing Director, Mr Amir Hamza, informed him that currently the factory was under massive expansion programme that will create permanent employment opportunities from 50 to between 200 and 400 and 600-1,000 casual labourers.
“We are focusing to increase the production capacity by buying between 70,000 and 80,000 tonnes of cherry coffee directly from Primary Cooperative Societies.Currently, the factory produces about 6,000 tonnes of sprayed dried instant coffee powder making AMIMZA the biggest coffee curing and processing factory in Eastern and Central Africa,” he said.
Prof Mkenda revealed that in January next year, he will convene a meeting to be attended by various stakeholders in the coffee sector in Kagera region to discuss, among other things, the challenges facing the coffee industry.
“Tanzania boasts of having three Ports-Tanga, Dar es Salaam and Mtwara. Why do farmers smuggle the coffee to a neighbouring country which does not have its own port,” he queried.
The Minister also said there was lack of transparency, competitiveness and democracy in running cooperatives, adding that some unfaithful leaders used their position for self-interests instead of serving the majority farmers.
Giving data, he said Kagera Region had more than 470,000 coffee farmers while members of Agricultural and Marketing Cooperative Societies (AMCOS) were only 115,555.
He tasked the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) and Tanzania Cooperative Commission (TCC), to devise a system that would enable Cooperative Unions in the country to sell the coffee to final traders at the world markets.
This would enable the Unions to get attractive prices for the produce and the difference should be paid to the farmer at the grassroots, he said.
“Coffee is among the six national strategic cash crops. Others include cotton, tea, tobacco, vanilla and sunflower. Concerted efforts should be taken to revive and increase the production of coffee to enable the farmers to uplift their lives economically,” he said.