AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Kilimanjaro New Cooperative Initiative Joint Venture Enterprise (KNCI JVE) has asked President John Magufuli to reconsider the decision to de-register the joint venture for the sake of coffee development in the country.
KNCI JVE popularly known as the G32 is a group of 32 agricultural marketing cooperative societies which decided to pull out of the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU-1984 Limited) to form a joint venture in coffee trading.
Speaking to reporters at the weekend, KNCI JVE Chairman Mathias Akaro said the move by the relevant authorities to de-register the G32 and ask its members to go back to KNCU would hinder coffee production which had been improving since its (G32) establishment in 2000.
According to Mr Akaro, the decision to pull out of KNCU also enabled farmers to improve coffee production whereby G32 now collects between 800,000 and 1,000,000kg of coffee every season in the past four years.
“Coffee farmers are also subject to payments of the coffee they produce. We pay them between 4,000/- and 4,500/- per kilogramme on regular coffee and between 5,000/- and 7,000/- per kilogramme of organic coffee,” he noted, adding that the achievements were just dreams for them before the establishment of G32.
Mr Akaro noted that apart from good payments from the coffee they produced G32 members also accessed good health services jointly provided by KNCI JVE and one of its foreign clients Zensho Group of Japan, which had been improved after successful mother and child healthcare.
“After the successful mother and child healthcare services, we decided in collaboration with our two partners in Umati and Zensho Group to embark on a mobile clinic cervical cancer observation and treatment project, which has benefited our members, especially coffee farmers,” he said, adding that, this also complimented government efforts to improve health services especially in rural areas.
For his part, KNCI JVE General Manger Gabriel Ollomi said G32 had also invested 17,000,000/- in Kilimanjaro Cooperative Bank Limited (KCBL), which was on the verge of collapsing before it was saved by President John Magufuli.
