Fast Facts on KNCU
Founded in 1933
Comprised of more than 92 farmer member societies with 80,000 farmer members -- trades coffee with 67 Primary Cooperative Societies or 60,000 farmers
First NOP certification in 2004/05 -- goal to certify 3 Primary Societies a year
FLO certified since 1993
Coffee characteristics: medium to strong acidity, light to medium body, light citrus complexity
Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union (1984) Ltd.
KNCU has been in the coffee business for a long time. Its roots go back to 1933 when it was founded as a registered union under Tanzania's Cooperative Societies Ordinance. After the government dissolved the union in the 1970s (along with the rest of the Tanzania's unions/cooperatives), it took over a decade for KNCU to reestablish itself. Currently, the Union trades coffee with 67 Primary Cooperative Societies, representing 60,000 farmer members. The actual number of members is higher but because of the industry's trend towards liberalization, many of the members sell their coffee to private buyers as opposed to the association.
The Union operates democratically with an elected Board of Directors and administrative staff for the Union itself as well as a Board and secretariat for each of the primary societies.
About 7% of members are women, most of them heirs to their deceased husbands' membership. KNCU is currently engaged in a union-wide effort to increase female membership in the cooperatives.
Quality is a primary focus of KNCU. The Union believes that small-scale farming is the best way to achieve the highest quality coffee. Most of the members' plots are between 0.5 and 1.5 acres per family, at altitudes of 1000-2000 meters above sea level. The core function of the Union is to "coordinate, organize and sensitize the farmers on the production of quality and increased quantity of coffee." In 2005, it began a Coffee Quality Improvement Program with the aim of extending knowledge and expertise to create a better product and thereby receive a better price for its members. KNCU helps members process the grains and market the coffee abroad.
In more recent years, KNCU has concentrated their efforts on training groups of producers in organic production of coffee (first NOP certificate obtained in 2004). Slowly but surely, organic techniques are making their way throughout the primary societies; new groups are certified each year.
The Union has also engaged in a number of projects aimed at generating additional income and deepening the Fair Trade connection with importers and consumers of KNCU coffee. Since 2006, they've been running a "Fair Tourism" project in which they invite people on the other side of the coffee chain to come and spend a few days getting to know the farmers and the production process. Visitors have the option of camping in traditional-styled Chagga huts on the slopes of Kilimanjaro or in a basic campsite surrounded by coffee farms.
At its core, the coffee production of KNCU and its farmers depends greatly on the successful administration and communication of its many primary cooperative societies. Capacity building to improve the functioning of the societies is a primary and indispensable service KNCU offers to its members. Since obtaining FLO certification in 1993, the Fair Trade premium has allowed
members to establish a collective educational fund for scholarships to the farmers' children and later, to build and operate schools, to finance the organic transition of 7 primary societies, to help finance the Quality Improvement Program, to grow a coffee nursery, and finally, to help finance a cooperative bank allowing producers to obtain loads and create savings and credit programs. KNCU is most definitely a success story when it comes to Fair Trade!
*all photos and information courtesy of KNCU*
KNCU — Cooperative Coffees
NB, kipindi anataifisha vyama vya ushirika KNCU ilikuwa at the peak na very story financially while the rest kama NCU ilikuwa inakufa