Getting a better position in the coffee business

Mtandao wa vikundi vya wakulima Mbinga (Network of farmers' groups of Mbinga), or MVIWAMBI for short, is a second level farmers organisation and has been active since the year 2000. A self-organised 'company', with over 2000 active members in 44 groups, it provides farm inputs, harvest collection, storage and training via farmer field schools to its coffee farmers. The organisation has interesting volumes of medium to good quality of coffee, which it sells through the Tanzanian Coffee Board Auction. Mviwambi's ambition is to have 300 groups organised in 5 years. In order to realize this they have to professionalize as a cooperative, provide good services to their members and find better markets for their coffee. The most significant strength of this organisation is that the groups and members are well organized and speak with one voice. They are very committed to improve their own livelihood. In addition, there is an unlimited access to credit for working capital, because the collateral is in the warehouse as Mviwambi sells 100% of the coffee via the Auction. On the other side, the organisation can benefit tremendously from professionalizing its financial management and by strengthening their marketing skills. In the future they are aiming to also sell directly to exporters instead of 100% through the auction. But before being able to export directly, the organization must increase its awareness about the global coffee trends and improve on its marketing skills. In addition, by analyzing whether it would be worthwhile to invest in washing machines, they can increase the margin for the farmer by reducing the costs for the farmer. Currently they outsource the washing activities. This is particularly interesting as coffee prices are volatile and Mviwambi cannot influence sales prices. It can though reduce costs for the farmers by being more efficient and see opportunities to further reduce on costs. Key focus areas are therefore improvement of financial management, strengthening sales/marketing capacities, professionalization of the organisation by developing strategic and business plans and checking the feasibility of investing in washing machines in order to increase the margins for the cooperative and thus the income of the member. In addition, the action plan also pays attention on improving production by working on soil fertility.