Arabica took root more easily near Kilimanjaro, spread by the Spiritan missionaries in the early 1890s. Arabica was planted in 1902 in Moshi and cultivated by the local Chagga group, under colonial duress. This established a local economy that eventually organized into a coffee auction system, still in place in Moshi today.
After the first World War, the British absorbed what was then called German East Africa and renamed it Tanganyika, accelerating coffee cultivation. The first cooperative, the Kilimanjaro Native Planter’s Association, was established in 1925. It was the first of several cooperative groups enabling producers to directly sell the coffee to London and get better prices. After the second war, any remaining Germans settlers would be interned, and farms were taken over by the British.
After Tanganyika’s transition from British colony to UN trustee territory, a series of elections in the late 1950s culminated in the rise of educator and anti-colonial politician Julius Nyerere, who became the nation’s first president. In 1963, Zanzibar joined Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania (a portmanteau of the two previously independent nations).
In 1977, in an effort to unify one of Africa’s most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries, President Nyerere introduced a new philosophy called “Ujamaa.” The Swahili word can be rendered in English as “family” or “brotherhood” but has come to mean “cooperative economics” or “socialism.” Under this ideology, Tanzania rapidly nationalized former colonial holdings and redistributed lands and properties.
Unfortunately, agricultural cooperatives, including the 400 or more coffee co-ops, began to dissolve under the weight of a ballooning bureaucratic government which was rife with corruption. For half a decade, from 1977 until 1982 when cooperatives reorganized under governmental control, the Tanzania Coffee Authority bought and sold all coffee in the country. As subsidized government-controlled cooperatives sank deeper into debt, independent parties were able to step in where cooperatives lacked assets and began to purchase coffee directly.
The Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) was first established during a series of reforms and privatization beginning in 1990 and culminating with the formation of the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) and the TCB in 2000-2001.
The TCB Auction held in Moshi, in the far northeastern part of the country, takes place weekly during the harvest season. Bidders are licensed by the government to participate as exporters to the international market. In recent years, additional decentralized auctions have also taken place in Kagera (in the northwest) and Mbinga and Songwe (in the south).
A shift in the country’s approach to the cooperatives began somewhat recently in January of 2018, largely as an effort to curtail high rates of robusta smuggling. All licenses for traders purchasing coffee directly from farmers were revoked, and legislation reinstated smallholder cooperatives (unregistered groups are no longer allowed) and mandated all coffee be purchased by exporters exclusively through the auction, effectively eliminating the possibility of direct trade from farmer to exporter.
Cooperatives were left with little time to prepare for the upcoming harvest, and multinational and private buyers completely pulled up roots, abandoning their now-illegal washing stations and dry mills. Unpicked coffee fruits spoiled on the trees, and export-ready coffee arrived late to auctions and markets that year.
After 2018’s coffee volumes in Tanzania dropped, PM Majaliwa backpedaled, reinstating the possibility of international direct exports, requisitioning additional seedling plantings, floating the concept of regional auctions, and banning the export of unprocessed coffee in January of 2019. The country has since partnered with Cafe Africa, an NGO seeking to train farmers and agronomists.
