Tanzania’s coffee output may fall as much as 27 percent in the year through June 2012 as drought in the East African nation cuts yields, the country’s coffee board said.
Production for marketing in Tanzania, Africa’s fifth- biggest grower of the beans, may range from 40,000 metric tons to 45,000 tons next year, compared with just over 55,000 tons expected this season, Adolph Kumburu, the director general of the Moshi-based agency, said today by e-mail.
The drop will be “due to drought reports from growing regions,” he said.
The nation’s coffee, tea and lint cotton crops were reduced because of a drought that lasted from December 2009 to March last year. Tanzania, which consumes less than 3 percent of its annual output, reaps the crop from April through August, while its marketing season runs July to April or May.
Next season’s forecast compares with 35,700 tons in 2008-09 when the country’s yields were affected by a drought.
The East African nation is increasing planting in an effort to raise coffee output to 100,000 tons by 2015, Kumburu said last month. Tanzania grows both the robusta and arabica varieties in the western Kagera region, while the northern Kilimanjaro and southern regions mainly produce arabica. Arabica accounts for about 75 percent of output, with robusta making up the rest.
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