Forest River Coffee

Little by little, the number of farmers who we buy from is growing. Depicted below are 12 of the 18 families who sold coffee to us in this current order. Farmers picked the coffee themselves and delivered it to the local processing facility where the coffee was cleaned dried, and bagged. Like Bellington Mtui, our original coffee grower, these families live in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania typically on 1 to 3 hectares of land. They raise cattle for milk, grow crops, fruits, vegetables, and coffee. Coffee accounts for 20-40 % of family income. Currently, the world market price for coffee is up, and the local Tanzanian price has also improved, but the coffee you buy from us still gives farmers 25-50% more profit than the local market.

Each individual farmer is cultivating his or her arabica coffee in a shade/agroforestry system using no chemicals, similar to the system described by Bellington (see the page about coffee growing in Tanzania). As always, this system maintains tree cover and also produces a high quality coffee bean that is good for your health.

Thanks for your contribution to improving the market opportunities for small-scale coffee farmers in this region!