A Tanzanian ban on exporting raw coffee is unlikely to have a significant impact since the industry already processes much of its output, a union official said on Monday.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa on Friday banned exports of unprocessed coffee, the country's third-largest cash crop last year, saying refining the crop would keep more cash in the country.
However, the chairman of the Kagera Coffee Union, Onesmo Niyegila, said that coffee from his northwest region, one of the main producers, is already mostly processed before export.
The order will come into effect in the harvest season starting in May, Minister of Agriculture Japhet Hasunga said, adding that coffee should be processed to the level of clean beans before exporting and not necessarily to final product ready for consumption. In 2017 Tanzania's coffee crop earned $127.18 million in foreign exchange, down from $154.2 the previous year, government figures show. Primus Kimaryo, the Tanzania Coffee Board's acting director-general, said the order was to alert stakeholders who may be thinking of exporting raw coffee that they should cease from doing so.
President John Magufuli has promised to fast-track industrialisation and boost farmers' earnings in the East African nation.
In November he intervened in the cashew nut harvest, ordering the state to buy it at higher prices than traders were offering.