Tanzania expects a bumper coffee harvest in 2014/15 thanks to good rain and plantings by farmers, the regulator Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) said on Tuesday. State-run TCB said 25,693 60-kg bags were offered at the first auction of the season last week, with 25,560 bags sold.
"We expect a bumper harvest this season, with production likely to be in excess of 55,000 tonnes, which is more than the previous season," Primus Kimaryo, director of quality and promotion at the coffee board, told Reuters. Tanzania, Africa's fourth-biggest coffee producer, yielded around 48,690 tonnes of coffee last season, behind the continent's top growers - Ethiopia, Uganda and Ivory Coast.
"All the robusta coffee was sold at the first auction of the season and more than 90 percent of the arabica beans on offer were also sold," Kimaryo said. "We have started the new season with traders showing strong demand for coffee and the prices offered to farmers for the commodity are above the terminal market." East African coffee is normally packed in 60-kg bags but the prices are quoted for quantities of 50 kg. The TCB said benchmark grade AA sold at $202.00-$259.00 per 50 kg at last week's auction and fetched an average price of $219.08 per 50 kg.