Tanzania – Iyenga AB

The Songwe region, rich in agricultural production, is situated in southern Tanzania bordering Zambia and Malawi. This is the location of the Mbozi District, populated with 175 villages and around 515,000 people.

During the harvest, cooperative members will either deliver their cherries directly to the Iyenga wet mill to be processed or will process their cherries at home. All will start the harvest by picking their cherries by hand at peak ripeness. Members without processing facilities will bring their cherries to the mill. Quality is then assessed, and the cherries are sorted in order to remove underripe cherries and foreign matter. The cherries are pulped to peel away the external fruit and washed to remove the remaining mucilage. The beans are then dried in the open sun on raised beds for 9-10 days.
The members who process their cherries at home, however, will use hand pulpers to pulp their coffee. The beans are then fermented in plastic tanks of water for 72 hours to breakdown the remaining mucilage. Once complete, they are cleaned and dried for 9-10 days. As soon as the beans are dried, the members will bring them to the mill to be hulled and rested prior to export.