Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to visit the Machare group of smallholders, also known as KVCGA.
This association of coffee growers has 16 small washing stations below Kilimanjaro, which serve about 425 smallholder farmers with an average total of about 48,500 tons of parchment.
The lower-altitude washing stations are closing the harvest season now, while the harvest is peaking at the higher-altitude washing stations. All the washing stations are managed by KVCGA leadership, and members provide manpower through the season in receiving, weighing, sorting, and drying the coffee. The washing stations are set up in each sub-village to minimize the walking distance.
KVCGA’s members have been very pleased with the returns earned by their coffee of late—last season, their coffee fetched the highest price ever for the area. I look forward to continuing to work with this group as they consistently earn good prices for their coffee.
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