Govt to support research, innovation on coffee

He was speaking at the official opening of the 14th African Coffee Conference & Exhibitions at Landmark Conference & Exhibitions held recently in Dar es Salaam.

The event brought on board 39 companies and institutions from East, Central and Southern Africa coffee producing countries Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and hosts Tanzania that are participating in the coffee exhibitions.

“ I am told that the theme of this conference is Research & Innovations… I promise that the fifth phase government under President Dr John Magufuli will go the extra mile to further support all research and innovations geared towards addressing challenges facing the coffee industry, not only here in Tanzania but also across Africa and worldwide,” he said.

The minister added: “From now on, the coffee business should be taken seriously and there should be no reason whatsoever why an increase in its quality and quantity should not be realised.”

The chairman of the Board of Directors of Tanzania Coffee Board, Dr Juma Ngasongwa, said TCB was in charge of coordinating the shared functions of Public Private Partnership (PPP) while supporting and supervising the coffee value chain in Tanzania.

Dr Ngasongwa said TCB also coordinates all research and innovations done by the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) which aim at addressing the challenges facing the Tanzania coffee industry while doing the best to increase the quality and quantities of productivity.

For his part, the principal secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investments, Professor Adolph Mkenda, called for investment in the coffee value chain in Tanzania, promising them that the government would support all who would be involved in such an initiative.

Earlier, the executive director of the Inter-African Coffee Organisation (IACO), Fred Kawuma, said research &innovations in coffee should be taken seriously throughout the whole coffee value chain as African research on the crop lagged behind those carried out by countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador which were giant coffee producers worldwide.

He further said research and innovations on coffee in Africa was both ignored and understaffed except for the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) which was performing best and was proved by the fact that TaCRI had presented more research papers than any other institutions from coffee producing countries in Africa.

He, therefore, called upon other African coffee producing countries to invest more in coffee research and innovations.

“African countries need to focus more on young people as far as their research and innovations on coffee are concerned.

Pay more attention to innovations by the youth, especially those on coffee” he appealed, adding that IACO in cooperation with the African Development Bank (AfDB) have set aside funds to support youth who are engaged in research and innovations on coffee.

For his part, the chairman of AFCA who also heads the AFCA-Chapter in Ethiopia, Abdullah Bargesh, commended local and international companies and institutions such as PASS, CRDB-PLC, TCB, ETG, Mullege-Ethiopia, Dormans, Starbucks and SUCAFINA for their committed sponsorship of the event.