Altitude: 900m-1700m
Cup: Medium to high acidity, body and flavour
Harvest: May to January
Shipment: August to March
Distance from Moshi: 5-80 km
Distance from Dar es Salaam: 560km

The region encompasses the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro (5,895m, the highest point in Africa). The mountain is home to over 1 million people, many of whom depend upon coffee for at least part of their income. Coffee has been grown in the area for well over
100 years. Smallholder farmers have been the backbone of production for decades although production has declined recently as a result of low prices.

Rehabilitation by private investors of the 42 estates, now owned by co-operatives, started in 1995. As a
result, production from these is rising and should reach 3-4,000mt by 2008.

Some estates have introduced drip-irrigation to conserve water resources. The other estates and smallholders rely on rainfall, overhead irrigation or traditional irrigation furrows,
some of which are 175 years old.

Main Estates: Makuru, Machare, Kibo Kikafu, Tchibo, Lyamungu, Nkwansira, Uru, Lyamungu, Bondeni, Nkwansira, Uru, Chombo, Mawingo, Kifufu

Northern Region / Pare and Usambara

Altitude: 800m-1600m
Cup: Medium acidity, body and flavour
Harvest: July to December
Shipment: August to March
Distance from Moshi: Pare 80-160km, Usambara 250-300km
Distance from Dar es Salaam: Pare 400-500km, Usambara 360-400km

The Pare and Usambara mountains stretch South-East from just South of Mt Kilimanjaro almost to the Indian Ocean. The slopes are steep and the root systems of coffee trees are important for soil conservation.

Total production varies from 1-2,000mt. Almost all coffee is produced by smallholders. There are a handful of small estates in the Usambara Mountains, which are better known for their tea production.

Northern Region / Arusha

Altitude: 1100-1900m
Cup: Medium to strong acidity, body and flavour
Harvest: July June to January
Shipment: September to April
Distance from Moshi (to Arusha): 80 km
Distance from Dar es Salaam: 640 km

The coffee growing areas are the smallholder farms on the slopes of Mt Meru (4566m) and the estates which are mainly on the plains at its base surrounding Arusha. There are also estates on Monduli mountain, West of Arusha.

Main Estates: Burka, M’ringa, Selian, Usa, Ogaden, Monduli

Northern Region / Oldeani/Ngorongoro

Altitude: 1400-1900m
Cup: Medium to strong acidity, body and flavour
Harvest: September to March
Shipment: November to May
Distance from Moshi: 225km
Distance from Dar es Salaam: 785km

Oldeani lies at the foot of the volcano of the same name and adjacent to the Ngorongoro crater, one of the seven wonders of the natural world. Almost all the coffee is grown on estates on the slopes of Oldeani and Ngorongoro mountains. One of the more unusual hazards which farmers face is elephants coming down from the Conservation Area forest to eat and drink and use salt licks in the estates.

Main Estates: Oldeani, Shah Plantation, Tinga Tinga, Edelweiss, Bergfrieden

Southern Region / Mbinga

Altitude: 1400-1700m
Cup: Farm washed: Medium acidity, fruity flavour.
Pulpery washed: Medium to strong acidity, body and flavour
Harvest: August to November
Shipment: October to February
Distance from Dar es Salaam: 1060km

Mbinga lies on the road between Songea and Mbamba Bay (Lake Malawi), close to the Southern border of Tanzania with Mozambique. The coffee is grown by smallholder farmers on the steep slopes of the hills surrounding the town.

The coffee known as ‘Ruvuma’ is processed at the pulperies built and rehabilitated since 1996 by Soochak, Bush & Co and Tropex.

Southern Region / Mbeya Region (Mbozi, Mbeya, Ileje and Rungwe Districts)

Altitude: 1200-2000m
Cup: Farm washed: Medium acidity, fruity flavour. Pulpery and estate washed: Medium to strong acidity, body and flavour
Harvest: April to October
Shipment: August to January
Distance from Dar es Salaam: Mbeya 840km, Mbozi coffee areas 900-950km, Ileje/Rungwe coffee areas 890-940km

The Mbeya region is the largest producer of Arabica coffee in Tanzania. Coffee is grown in four of the districts. The largest is Mbozi, West of Mbeya on the high ground either side of the main Tanzania-Zambia Highway. There are also some estates in this
area. Mbeya Rural District, surrounding Mbeya itself, also has has both smallholder and estate production. Rungwe and Ileje Districts are more mountainous. Here coffee farming is important in protecting slopes from erosion.

The ‘Hope’ organic coffee project of Lima Ltd is based in Ileje.
Production in the region is divided into three categories – smallholder home-processed,
smallholder processed at central pulperies and estate coffee.

The bourbon varieties (N5 – known locally as Mbozi ‘nylon’) grown in the region are intrinsically fine coffees and proper washing, fermentation and drying brings out the best in them. Centralpulperies for smallholder coffee have been reintroduced into the region since 2003 by Lima Ltd.

Main Estates: Utengule, Lunji, Kanji Lalji, Msumbi, Elton, Punguluma

Southern Region / Iringa Region (Mufindi/Kilombero Escarpment & Njombe), Morogoro

Altitude : 1200-1900m
Cup : Medium acidity, body and flavour
Harvest: June-December
Shipment: August – February
Distance from Dar es Salaam: Njombe 720km, Mufindi 600km

Mufundi and Njombe are both in Iringa region (NE of Mbeya) in which much of the world-famous Selous Game Reserve is situated. Both areas are better known for tea and account for most of Tanzania’s tea production.

Coffee has been planted on a significant scale since the mid 1990’s although there was some production by smallholders before that.

Some smallholder coffee is grown on the Uluguru Mountain range (summit 2646 metres) which runs South from Morogoro, to the North-East of the Mikumi National Park.

Estates: Lupembe

Southern Region / Morogoro

Altitude: 1100-1500m
Harvest: June-December
Shipment: August-February
Distance from Dar es Salaam: 200km

A small quantity of coffee (both Arabica and robusta) is grown by smallholder farmers on the Uluguru Mountains (summit 2646 metres) which run South from Morogoro to the North-East of the Mikumi National Park.

Western Region / Kasulu (Kigoma)

Altitude: 1400-1600m
Cup: Light-medium body, acidity and flavour
Harvest: September-December, August-November
Shipment: November-February
Distance from Dar es Salaam: Kasulu 1370km

This coffee is produced by some 1500 smallholder farmers s around Kasulu, only 50km from the border with Burundi and close to Kigoma/Ujiji (site of the Livingstone Memorial Museum) and Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake on earth.

The fact that it is 705km by rural roads from the closest major area of production in Tanzania (Mbozi) explains why this coffee has not become known in its own right. It is generally railed to
Moshi (a total journey of nearly 1800km) where it is milled and then auctioned. By the time the coffee is shipped, it will have already travelled at least 2100km.

Western Region / Bukoba

Altitude: 1200-1500m
Cup: Fine robusta characteristics, similar to Uganda's
Harvest: April to December
Shipment: July to March
Distance from Dar es Salaam: Bukoba 1420km (by road)

Kagera and Karagwe Districts in Bukoba Region are the main robusta coffee producing areas of Tanzania. The coffee is auctioned ‘ex Kemondo Bay’ (the port for Bukoba) and
shipped across the world’s second-largest lake (Victoria) by wagon-ferry to Mwanza from where it is railed to Dar es Salaam.

Grading has improved significantly and robusta is now offered in 5 grades – UG, SUG (Screen 12), FAQ (Screen 15) , FAQ Superior
(Screen 16) and Screen 18.Bukoba Region also produces hard (unwashed/natural ) Arabica. These are exported as FAQ or UG grades.

Western Region / Tarime

Altitude: 1400-1700m
Cup: Good quality unwashed Arabica
Harvest: March to September
Shipment: August to December
Distance from Dar es Salaam: Tarime (via Musoma, Serengeti, Ngorongoro) 1215km

Situated in the hill country to the North-West of the Serengeti National Park and just South of the border with Kenya, Tarime offers a well prepared sundried Arabica coffee on soils which are some of the best in Tanzania for coffee production.

Beautiful but rugged terrain and unmetalled roads can make the collection of coffee during the rainy season a challenging operation.

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