Meanwhile...in Tanzania

Recently, in Tanzania, the Mwika coffee AMCOS celebrated the opening of their newly completed washing station. Primarily funded by a fundraising campaign we took part in last year, this new infrastructure will help to improve the lives and incomes of small-holder farmers. This, in turn, will help secure the prospects of young Tanzanian coffee farmers who can count on coffee production as a viable income. 

The Mwika AMCOS had a coffee pulper donated to them by an NGO over seven years ago, which due to a lack of funds, was never fully installed and sat dormant at the Mwika headquarters. Farmers contributing coffee to the Mwika AMCOS had to pulp their cherries themselves, which was both labour intensive and of inconsistent quality. These factors, combined with the overall low coffee pricing, meant that many farmers were abandoning coffee and instead focusing on faster-growing cash crops such as Bananas. When WOR Director of Coffee travelled to Tanzania with the importer team First Crop Coffee, he learned that many Mwika farmers were worried about the future of coffee in the area.  

Fundraising Campaign

To lend a hand to the Mwika AMCOS, we ran a fundraising campaign alongside Green Coffee importers First Crop and some other independent coffee roasters from Melbourne, DC & Inglewood. The commissioning of the mill was managed by experienced coffee exporters Taylor Winch, and any shortfall in funding was made-up with an interest-free loan. 

We think this initiative is a positive example of small businesses coming together to enact change and hopefully improve the lives of our business partners and forge lasting relationships. 

Our in-house artist/collaborator Adam Parata designed a great T-shirt, the proceeds from the sales of which went directly to the Mwika AMCOS.