A UN agency and the Japanese ministry of agriculture have teamed up with two major national companies to support small-scale coffee producers in Tanzania in implementing sustainable practices.

The partnership, worth approximately $460,000 in grants, was announced on Friday by the ministry, the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Japanese coffee manufacturer Ueshima Coffee Co (UCC), and Tokyo-based trading company Marubeni.

The grant will go towards nine Tanzanian organisations, with the aim of promoting more sustainable practices among small-scale coffee farmers.

As Japan is Tanzania’s largest buyer of its Arabica production, the pilot also seeks to improve productivity and increase local farmers’ access to international markets.

“Global demand for coffee continues to grow, making a stable supply of high-quality coffee beans a key challenge. […] We believe that by supporting production areas in Tanzania, we can increase production that is high quality and considers the ecosystem,” said Fumihiko Asada, representative director-president of UCC.

Coffee farmers’ communities in Tanzania currently face challenges such as coffee berry diseases, leaf rust, lack of fertilisers, and supply instability caused by the climate crisis.

Under the initiative, UCC will provide training on nurseries, agroecological farming practices, compost production, and post-harvest processes, while Marubeni will conduct research on locally available resources for compost production, and monitoring and reporting.

“While a stable supply of coffee becomes more difficult due to rising demand caused by increasing global consumption and supply instability caused by climate change, we believe that working with the public sector to contribute to a stable supply is an important mission,” added Hidefumi Oya, CEO at Marubeni.

The pilot marks the first project of the ‘Enhanced Linkages between Private Sector and Small-scale Producers’ (ELPS) initiative, launched by Japan in 2023 under its G7 presidency with the aim of encouraging the private sector in the Global North to cooperate with Global South’s producers.

“The private sector plays a crucial role in driving investment and fostering innovation in agri-food systems,” Gerardine Mukeshimana, vice president at IFAD, said in a statement.

The financing gap for Tanzania to respond to the climate crisis is estimated at $3.4 billion a year, with approximately 27.6 million people living below the national poverty line due to high population growth, according to data by IFAD.

In the last five decades, IFAD has implemented 18 projects in Tanzania, providing over $469 mln in financing and reaching more than 4.2 mln households.

Last week, the UN agency and the government of the Philippines launched an over €100-mln project to support local farming communities and protect the country’s fragile ecosystems.

By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com

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