Tanzania Officials Expect to Nearly Double Direct Sale Exports

Tanzania Coffee Farm. Photo by Joe Pyrek

With a bumper robusta crop expected, Tanzania may nearly double its direct sale coffee exports in 2012-13 to more than 60,000 metric tons.

Primus Kimaryo, director of quality and promotions for the Tanzania Coffee Board, recently told Bloomberg News that robusta alone may account for half of the sales outside the auction system. Last year, total direct sale exports from Tanzania, Africa’s fourth largest coffee producer in 2012, was 33,305 tons. The production increase is being attributed to increased planting due to increased global robusta demand, as well as favorable weather.

“We produced more robusta which is directly sold to markets,” Kimaryo told Bloomberg.

The full story: Bloomberg