Communal Shamba Coffee

our story

Communal Shamba Coffee was established by young Tanzanian farmers to facilitate trade of green coffee from smallholder farmers in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands to the world. We are farmers working with fellow farmers to harvest and process specialty green beans, ready for export to our global network of roasters and buyers.

Communal Shamba coffee is a catalyst for long term social change, going beyond direct trading and fairer pricing. We focus on creating sustainable impact for the coffee farming community in Tanzania.

ORIGIN + COMMUNITY

Mkulima Kwanza Co-operative is a collective of smallholder farmers.

Our cooperation contributes economic security to farmers who rely on coffee to make ends meet by ensuring fairer and stable prices. We are proud to pay fair prices with premiums for the fantastic coffee that this cooperative produces each year.

In the future we hope to reach more coffee farmers in the region, working with them to grow and maintain farms sustainability and export green beans coffee through our partner buyers and roasters.

Producers: Various Smallholder Farmers
Locality: Ihowa, Mbozi district
Arabica Varietals: Kent & Bourbon
Altitude: 1600 – 1800 above Sea Levels

Mkulima Kwanza is a fully registered Agricultural Marketing Co-Operative Society (AMCOS) based in Tanzania’s southern highland region of Songwe. In collaboration with Communal Shamba Coffee, Mkulima Kwanza is the first and only Co-Op in southern Tanzania to specialise in processing non-washed Arabica coffees.

Communal Shamba Coffee teamed up with fellow smallholder farmers to establish Mkulima Kwanza and collaborate in producing and processing specialty coffee using experimental approaches, which increase farmers’ premium prices, reduce production costs and improve quality from farm to cup. This Co-Op’s focus is on “mkulima kwanza” (translated from Swahili this means “farmers first”).

Coffee: a catalyst for change

Our hope is not just to produce good coffee but to use coffee as an agent for long term change for those who grow it. Communal Shamba Coffee works with Mkulima Kwanza and the community in Ihowa village to create change beyond better coffee prices. The members of Ihowa village identified education and health as priority areas for intervention. Together with Mkulima Kwanza, committed coffee roasters and the Ihowa community, we are improving a local maternal health facility and improving infrastructure at Ihowa Primary School.

Stories from Shamba

Shamba NOUN (Swahili) a cultivated plot of ground; a farm or plantation.

Mama Mbunda

What a gem. Her lifetime of coffee farming experience and the hard work she puts into caring for her farms means that she has produced some of the best coffee during this harvest. She is our mama; she is a key farmer but also kind heartedly offered part of her farm space for processing in our first harvest season. She still continues to feed and accommodate Communal Shamba team members during the harvest season.

Mama Mbunda embodies the Tanzanian spirit of Upendo na Umoja (Love and Unity in Swahili) and shows the impact of communal living in achieving a common goal. It is experiences like these that define the Communal Shamba ethos: Farm goods for goodness of our communities.

Stories from Shamba

Shamba NOUN (swahili) a cultivated plot of ground; a farm or plantation.

Raphael

Raphael owns three coffee farms with a total of 2500 coffee trees. Some of these trees were handed down from his grandfather who planted them in the 1950s. His coffee experience has been expanded through previously working as a coffee buyer/collector for various companies during harvest seasons. He plays a crucial role in quality control and assurance for our operations.

Raphael will be key for implementing our ambitious production goals in 2020. It is part of our social impact objectives to continuously create jobs within communities for coffee farmers such as Raphael.

Stories from Shamba

Shamba NOUN (swahili) a cultivated plot of ground; a farm or plantation.

Hatson

Hatson comes from a family of second generation coffee farmers and his inherited commitment to producing stellar coffee is beyond explanation. We fondly remember how Hatson religiously watered his 2500 trees using a bucket during the 2017 season when the rainy season was delayed. It definitely paid off as he produced some of the best cherries within the village that season.

He plays a critical role in integrating Communal Shamba into the community, helping us to build new infrastructure, connecting us with various stakeholders and providing transportation.

These relationships will be extended in the 2020 season. Keep following our journey and expect a tasty cup from us soon!