TANZANIA SONGWE HEZYA PEABERRY PLUS

In Tanzania, Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies (AMCOS) manage 95% of the country’s coffee production. Smallholders must be registered to an AMCOS to qualify for support in production, processing, storage, transport, marketing, and government aid. Without membership, their raw coffee would have no way of reaching the global market. The Hezya AMCOS started out with just 50 smallholder coffee growers. Thanks to strong leadership that supplies agronomic inputs and small loans, the AMCOS quickly grew to its current force of 295 members across the Haraka, Hezya, and Izumbi villages in the Mbozi region. In the 2022/2023 crop season, Taylor Winch Tanzania, granted the Hezya AMCOS a loan for a Coffee Production Unit (CPU) so that the AMCOS members can collectively wash process their harvested cherries. After drying the washed coffee on raised beds for 9-10 days, the parchment coffee is delivered to the dry mill for storage, milling, and grading before exporters transport the Tanzania green coffee. Around 90% of the Arabica coffee from Tanzania is wash processed at either an AMCOS CPU or at home with a hand pulper. Tanzania employs its own grading system, which shares similarities with the one used in Kenya. Grading factors in species, bean size, density, processing method, and cup characteristics. The scale ranges from AA (screen sizes 17 & 18), AB (15 & 16 screen), C (14 & 15 screen), and PB for peaberry. This highly coveted natural mutation occurs when, instead of two seeds, a larger and rounder single seed grows inside the coffee cherry.