Since 2000, JOICFP has been selling fair trade specialty coffee from Tanzania to support Community-based Service Providers (CBSPs) in delivering health information and care.

The coffee, which is the highest grade 'Snowtop' arabica varietal, comes through the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU), which was established in 1929 and handles most of the coffee grown in the region.

The world coffee industry is worth around US$70 billion with world production of 6.7 million tons a year, though Tanzania accounts for only 0.75% with about 45,000 tons.

Coffee beans ripening on the bush in Kilimanjaro
© Takeshi Uchibori

Coffee bean prices are much lower than they used to be, though demand for specialty coffee is increasing.

Japan is the second largest buyer of Tanzanian coffee, so there is a good opportunity to develop the market here.

A lack of training to produce good yields has hampered many farmers until now, and JOICFP communicate closely with the Tanzanian Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) to produce good seedlings that can be used by farmers, including those that are CBSPs.

JOICFP's project, implemented by UMATI, trains the CBSPs to grow organic seedlings and develop their coffee fields.

Naftal Makema, 78, has been a CBSP since 1993, providing the correct information on reproductive health and family planning, and safe motherhood to the community. He says that he has helped many mothers. He grows both organic and non-organic coffee, but says that the price of coffee is very low, so he supplements his income by growing bananas and raising chickens.

Naftal Makema

Joyce Laise Mongii, 62, became a TBA in 1985. In 1992, she received training from UMATI, for which she is grateful. She says she is better able to help expecting mothers,

Joyce Laise Mongi

Coffee beans are taken to market once a year, and husbands often take the proceeds and spend them in the city on drink and commercial sex workers. Although this may happen once a year, STIs carried back to the villages where the coffee is grown is becoming a problem.

The JOICFP project also assists young people who are out of school to get vocational training.

Grace, 18, used to stay at home and help with coffee farming, but now after two years of training she is full of self-confidence and is looking forward to making clothes and working by herself.

Grace

Despite the low income that many people suffer, there are more pressing needs, such as access to good health care. Unless awareness is raised about these issues, little will change in the area.