Sparking New Life in Northern Tanzania
When Rebecca Trupin returned to her mother’s land in the Kilimanjaro region she wondered:,“What can I do for the region, and how can I do it while focusing on what’s best for groups rather than for individuals?” Slowly, yet steadily, she began working with farmers who not only had a real commitment to producing great quality coffee, but also sought democracy within their own organisations.
From our first import from Aranga in 2015 to today, Rebecca has had to go through many transformations. She learned how to manage complex farmer relationships, how to be the link between farmers and us from a distance, how to deal with complex Tanzanian bureaucracy, how to manage payment expectations and much much more. One of the main deceptions we faced every year was that we could not trust the large millers and we repeatedly received different quality coffees than the preshipment sample. After years of shopping around, Rebecca finally made the step to partner with Frank Mlay of the Tanzania Coffee Board and found her own export company: Wanza. This important step has allowed them to add more inspiring local farmer groups to their portfolio and help them achieve similar quality standards and prices as Aranga.
In Rebecca’s mother’s language, Swahili, “Wanza” means “to spark, to start life itself.” To us, this is exactly what Rebecca and her team have been doing since the very start of their work in Tanzania. In a region often forgotten by specialty coffee traders, we cannot overstate the importance of this work.
These are Wanza’s partner farmer groups in the 2022-2023 season.
Click on the pictures to read more about them.
Wanza partners with coffee groups for the long haul, and has been working with Aranga since 2015 and Marangu since 2017.
This season, we welcome Masista to the family.
masista
hectares: 18
congregation members: 730
bags bought: 14
aranga AND MajIrani
hectares: 70
farmers: 67
bags bought: 47
MARANGU
hectares: 24
farmers: 35
bags bought: 27
amkeni
farmers: 60
bags bought: 120
This Side Up Value Chain:
CULTIVARS:
Arabica Bourbon (Jackson, Mbirizi) and Kent
ALTITUDE:
1,200 - 1,700 meters above sea level
NOTABLE:
One of the only independent export companies working solely with smallholder farmers in Tanzania. Rebecca and her team are poised to bring the level of production quality of local Tanzanians up to the standard of the large local estates.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:
2019: Wanza was informally created and formed by Rebecca reaching out to Frank Mlay, the company’s local coffee expert.
2020: Wanza was formally registered as a business.
2021: Partnership with two new farmers groups, Masista and Amkeni, took place. Wanza also partnered with Progreso, making prepayment to farmers more fluid and quicker.
2022: Wanza completed the largest shipment ever. They also exported under their own export license for their first time! Shipment volume increased by almost four times.
The price you pay: €8,40/kg
Majirani GROUP: €4,59
the price Wanza pays Majirani for their dried parchment, or the farmgate price. The prices paid to the other farmer groups in 2022 are:
Aranga: 5,96 USD / kg
Marangu: 4,82 USD / kg
Masista: 4,59 USD / kg
Wanza Coffee: €0,96
or roughly 21% of the farmgate price. This includes all dry milling costs (paid to City Coffee Ltd in Moshi), preparation of the coffee for export and documentation.
SHIPPING: €1,06
local transport costs to Dar es Salaam + overseas transport to Rotterdam, Netherlands.
THIS SIDE UP: €1,40
This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Wanza. €1,40 is This Side Up highest margin, for a full overview of what we do to earn our margin, see the Trade Models page.
FINANCING: €0,33
Average financing cost (5% of the sales price) we have to pay lenders - simply because we don’t have the money in the bank to buy such large amounts of coffee all at once. This ensures immediate payment to Wanza when the coffee leaves the port.
REGENERATION: €0,06
A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture projects. Wanza wants to help farmers diversify production and buy seeds with this money.
AVAILABLE FROM wanza:
Aranga AA/AB coop lot - fully washed
Aranga PB coop lot - fully washed
Majirani AB farmer group lot - fully washed
Masista - Huruma Farmers Group - washed
Marangu AB - Fully Washed
Recommended Ikawa profile:
We noticed in previous years that TSU Washed 1 wasn’t developing the beans as fully as possible so we tried Christopher Feran’s High Alt itude 1800m profile which gives fantastic results. We actually adapted our standard Washed profile to have a lower drop temperature (145 degrees Celsius) and a few more seconds total roast time so you can use both - they now develop acidities in these dense beans beyond citric into smooth malic flavours, allowing the chocolate body and layered sweetness to develop adequately. Cut the roast short if DTR exceeds 23%.
PHOTO GALLERY
feel free to use these images, taken by Maarten on his frist journey to this amazing country.
CONTACT wanza
Wanza can be reached by email or by phone. Rebecca or Frank are also happy to have visitors to show around their coffee farms and host in their village, close to the city of Arusha and to numerous national parks.
CONTACT Rebecca Trupin / Frank Mlay Niwa’s
EMAIL rebecca.trupin@gmail.com / wanzacoffee@gmail.com
TEL +1 (615) 200 9209 / +255 713 838 181
Aranga Coffee Group, Nkoaranga, Arumeru District, Arusha Region, Tanzania