Tanzania`s coffee output may decline 41 pct on drought

Tanzania`s coffee production may fall 41 per cent in the current marketing season after a drought cut yields, said Adolph Kumburu, director general of the state-run Tanzania Coffee Board.

Output in the 12 months through June may decline to 40,000 metric tonnes from 68,000 tonnes last season, Kumburu said in an interview last week in Mombasa, Kenya. The board revised the 2008-09 output up from 62,000 tonnes, he said.

“The coffee industry has been hit hard this season,” Kumburu said, adding “Flowering of the crop was affected by drought that we had in the country last year.” Last June, the board lowered its forecast for this season’s output to 50,000 tonnes from 55,000.

Tanzania, like the rest of East Africa, experienced a prolonged drought in the second half of the year. Replanting is underway, with the goal of increasing output to 100,000 tonnes in 2015, Kumburu said. New varieties begin yielding in 18 months, unlike older varieties that took two years, he said.

“This year we hope to plant 10 million trees, compared with 9 million last year,” Kumburu said. “We’re replanting in the northern region where some trees are as old as 50 years, while in the south we’re opening new fields.”

Tanzania grows both the robusta and arabica varieties in the northwestern Kagera region, while the Kilimanjaro and southern regions predominantly produce arabica, which accounts for 75 per cent of total output.

Tanzania, Africa’s fourth-biggest coffee producer after Ethiopia, Uganda and Ivory Coast, reaps its crop from April through August. The country consumes only 3 per cent of its crop, with the rest exported through a weekly auction and direct sales.