Company Acquires Modern Coffee Cleaning Machine
Friday, 17 Aug 2012
ESSAB (T) Limited, a local coffee buying company has imported a multimillion modern machine from India to be used in cleaning Arabica coffee in Tarime district, Mara region. "The idea is to help coffee farmers and we are now assuring them high quality coffee and the price will also go up," the company's director, Mr Sabas Shirima said.
"This is a modern machine that we have bought from an Indian firm called Makinnon and it has the capacity to dry seven tons of coffee in every eight hours", Mr Shirima said. ESSAB has hired an Indian expert who is currently supervising installation of the machine at Muriba coffee processing factory in Mara region's leading coffee producing zone.
"We are now installing the machine with the help of an Indian expert and the work will be completed in the next few days," he said. The company has allocated about 900m/- to buy coffee in various coffee growing villages in Tarime this season.
The company has spent over 400m/- to buy coffee in the area last season, according to Mr Shirima.
"This season we are planning to buy 1.5 million kilogrammes of coffee in Tarime and we will spend about 900m/-," he hinted.
The company is also planning to set up another coffee processing factory at Nyanungu ward in a bid take its services close to farmers near the Serengeti National Park. The villages included Masanga, Kegonga and Mangucha.
ESSAB is a Tanzanian company that buys and clean coffee which has been heavily investing on the development of coffee sector in Tarime district over the past few months. The company runs Muriba Coffee Processing Factory which was established by the government via Tarime District Council with the aim of adding value to the cash crop.
Apart from setting up about 19 coffee buying stations, ESSAB has also created employment opportunities for close to 100 local people majority of them being women. Tarime is the leading coffee producer in Mara region.
Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) is determined to come up with effective strategies that will transform Tarime coffee into fully washed Arabica, according to TCB Director General Eng Adolph Kumburu.
