By Donald Nyarota.
MUTARE, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – The unprecedented rate of decline in coffee production over the past decade is an embarrasment to the nation an official has said.
The once vibrant coffee production has gone down by 92 percent from an annual average output of 7 000 tonnes down to less than 500 tonnes over the past decade according to Confederations of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) national vice president Henry Nemaire.
He said the major decline is an embarrassment towards the country’s farming sector.
“Coffee production declined from a pick, in the last decade, of 7 000 tonnes and we are producing less than 500 tonnes just because we don’t have people who know how to grow coffee. I can actually count farmers who know how to grow coffee.
“Isn’t this an embarrassment for a nation like Zimbabwe with a high literacy rate to have few farmers who know how to grow coffee? And we just had the land reform programme” said Nemaire.
At its peak coffee production used to boast of 125 commercial farmers and 2 600 small-scale producers in 2002.
However this number of registered coffee farmers drastically declined to just four commercial farms and 200 registered small-scale farmers in 2010, which has further slumped to date.
As the industry player dwindled, national coffee output also slumped steeply to 268 tonnes in 2010 from just under 2 500 tonnes in 2005.
It had been on a downward trend since 1990 when output hit a peak of 15 000 tonnes, dropping to 10 000 tonnes in 2002 and currently less than 500 tonnes.
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