Origin guideEast Africa
Tanzania Tanzanian speciality coffee
Tanzania grows coffee on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, in the Southern Highlands and around Lake Victoria. It’s home to what is often called Africa’s oldest coffee cooperative union, a long-running coffee auction in Moshi and a well-loved tradition of peaberry.
The field notes
Tanzania at a glance
- Harvest
Around May to November, depending on region
- Production
About 1.45 million 60 kg bags (2025/26)
- Main regions
Kilimanjaro · Arusha · Mbeya · Ruvuma · Kagera
- Common varietals
Bourbon (N39) · Kent · SL28 · SL34 · Ruiru 11 · Batian
Production figures: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service estimates for 2025/26, published July 2026.
When is it harvested, and how is it processed? See our guide to coffee harvesting and processing.
Chapter 01The story
History of coffee in Tanzania
Coffee was in Tanzania long before European settlers. The Haya people of Kagera, near Lake Victoria, grew robusta and boiled or smoked the cherries, using them as gifts and even as a form of currency.
Arabica arrived in the late 19th century with Catholic missionaries. Commercial planting grew under German colonial rule, and in 1911 German colonists ordered arabica to be planted across the Bukoba area. After the First World War, British rule pushed coffee growing further.
On the slopes of Kilimanjaro, Chagga farmers took up arabica with real success. They formed the Kilimanjaro Native Planters’ Association in 1925, and in 1933 the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union was founded. It is often described as Africa’s oldest coffee cooperative union.
Chapter 02Trade
Cooperatives and the Moshi auction
For decades, much of Tanzania’s coffee has been sold through the Tanzania Coffee Board auction in Moshi, at the foot of Kilimanjaro. During the season it runs weekly, giving buyers and farmers a public price for each lot.
The rules have shifted many times. In 1977 the cooperative unions were dissolved under the state’s socialist policies, before being brought back in the 1980s. Reforms in the early 1990s opened the industry up to private buyers. In 2018 the government required all smallholder coffee to go through the auction, then partly reversed this in 2019.
Today the Moshi auction sits alongside other approved regional auctions, and farmers can also sell directly to overseas buyers, as long as contracts are registered with the Tanzania Coffee Board.
Chapter 03Today
Coffee in Tanzania today
More than 90% of Tanzania’s coffee comes from smallholders, an estimated 320,000 or more families farming small plots. Around 60% of the crop is arabica, grown mainly in the north around Kilimanjaro and Arusha and in the Southern Highlands around Mbeya and Ruvuma. Robusta still grows in the west, around Kagera.
Most speciality lots are washed, though methods vary by area. Some southern washing stations ferment coffee under water for long periods, and natural processing is becoming more common in the south. Tanzania is also known for peaberry, where a cherry holds one small, round bean instead of two flat-sided ones.
In the cup, good Tanzanian coffees tend to have bright, lively acidity and a sweet, rounded body. Expect stone fruit like peach and apricot, citrus, floral notes such as jasmine, and a caramel sweetness.
Taste the neighbours
Like Tanzanian coffee? Try its neighbours
If you enjoy Tanzanian coffee, try Kenya. They share East Africa’s high-altitude growing, careful washed processing and Bourbon-family varieties, giving the same bright acidity and juicy fruit.
