Coffee Industry Visit

  For two days last week, we explored the various levels of the coffee industry in Arusha and Moshi. We hoped to obtain some coffee husk for stove testing and more importantly, better understand how coffee is processed. We began our journey on Thursday at a coffee plantation before continuing on to a wet mill and then a dry mill in Arusha. On Friday, we traveled to Moshi to learn more about coffee on the industry level by visiting with the Director of Marketing and Promotions in the Tanzanian Coffee Board as well as visiting two more curing and processing facilities. By traversing nearly every level of the coffee industry we were able to gather several important observations related to coffee husk and our stove.

First, we clarified our understanding of the path coffee takes in processing. After the bean is handpicked from coffee plants at the plantation, it is immediately sent to wet mills. This is where the outer fleshy portion of the coffee "nut" is removed. This fleshy pulp is returned to the plantation to be used as mulch and fertilizer while the rest of the bean is sent on to the dry mill. It is here at the dry mill that the coffee bean is finally separated from its husk. The bean can then be roasted and sold to consumers as the wonderful caffinated substance we all know as coffee. From understanding the processing path of coffee, we noted two related conclusions. One conclusion is that the coffee plantations usually don't have access to the coffee husk that would be used as fuel for the stove so plantation workers may not be an optimal user group to target. Plantations simply harvest and send the whole "nut" to wet mills. The husk is only produced and kept inside the dry mills. This leads to the second conclusion, that the coffee husk is essentially trapped inside those dry mills. When we visited Arusha Coffee Mills, we had to get clearance from security and be let in through a large  steel gate before being able to see the coffee husk. Without some dissemination scheme, it seems difficult for the average consumer to have access to coffee husk.

Second, it seems as though there is some interest in the coffee industry in promoting the use of coffee husk and creating distribution channels for it. With the difficulty of accessing coffee husk, this interest is very important. In speaking with the owners of Arusha Coffee Mills and managers of the Tanzania Coffee Curing Company, we found that coffee husk is really a seasonal fuel as it is only produced when coffee is being milled. However, when it is available, it lies in huge piles within the coffee mills. This coffee husk either decomposes naturally or is sold to nearby factories to be burnt in boilers.Though the coffee husk would ideally be free for stove users, its cost is still remarkably low. Both mills sell the husk at 15 TSH per kilogram and 14,000 TSH per metric ton. What was most apparent was the desire for mill management to utilize coffee husk better. One possibility is distributing the stove to the mill workers so the coffee husk can be used inside the mills to cook their meals. Another possibility is setting up networks to buy husk by the ton and sell it to consumers. Though coffee husk may be difficult to obtain for the typical stove user, the option of setting up husk distribution networks to offer a cheap fuel and utilize an agricultural waste should be explored in the future.

Third, agricultural wastes in Tanzania are already being utilized well. In between visiting the wet mill and dry mill, we also visited a branch of the Tanzanian Bean Research Program near the wet mill. Inside, we met with a researcher and described our project, hoping to see his perspective on our stove and if he thought there were any other loose biomasses that our stove could utilize. He told us that few agricultural by-products are wasted now. Farmers have found clever ways to use by-products in their operations as fertilizers or animal feed. He did note some agricultural by-products that are not being used include bean stalks and sunflower heads. While we do not foresee these burning well in our current stove design, we wondered about the possibility of using a loose biomass grinder to convert these biomasses into a granulated form similar to husk or sawdust. Combining what we learned at the research facility and coffee mills, it was clear that loose biomasses are not always available as free or nearly free fuel. Rather, it seems that using biomasses as fuel exists in an equilibrium with its other agricultural uses. For our stove and briquetting projects, this balance must be kept in mind.

        The two days we spent visiting the coffee industry taught us a lot about the phases of coffee production and important details about fuel availability and the willingness of various actors in the coffee industry to market coffee husk. We hope that the knowledge we gained can play a significant role in informing our decisions, especially as we move into stove distribution. We will surely visit these people again and thank them so much for teaching us so much!