It all starts with the 'Coffee Tree'. The coffee bean begins its life as the bean seeds inside a bright red cherry. The coffee cherry grows on small trees (or shrubs) which are grown from sea level to about 6,500 feet. The cherry goes through different stages of maturity, starting off as a green cherry but turning darkish red when it is then ripe and ready for picking or harvesting. Each tree produces the equivalent of a half a kilogram of roasted beans per year.
Tanzanian coffee is available to buyers throughout the world from licensed coffee export companies in Tanzania. The coffee is exported mainly in the form of coffee beans of 60kg bags and in small amounts of roasted beans and ground coffee in specified packages. Currently, Tanzania with an annual average output of 45,000 metric tons, accounts for around 1.2% of the world's coffee output.
KL Estate was acquired in 1956 and consists of 904 acres at an altitude of 1560m in Igamba, Mbozi.
In 1999, the farm was redeveloped to enhance the quality of coffee produced, increase its yield, reduce its environmental impact and help the local economy. An on-going ten year rejuvenation programme was put into place that year which is reevaluated on a yearly basis to ensure sustainable coffee production for the decade ahead.
New hybrid varieties of coffee have been planted to aid plant protection, which is less susceptible to coffee bearing disease and other ailments, and allowing increased coffee outputs.
Our current productions at K.L. Coffee Estates stands at 158 tons and is expected to grow to 250 tons in the years to come.
K.L. Coffee Estates supports the need to change farming practices to minimize the negative impact on the ecological footprint by putting into place environmentally conscious farming practices. This has been implemented in a number of ways within the coffee estate including reassessing fertilizer usage, reducing water wastage and introducing newer machinery.
The environmental impact of harsh fertilizer usage was minimized by reducing the amount used and substituting with naturally composted material. In the pluping process, the practice of soaking or washing the berries is often used. This practice can use vast amounts of water, causing huge impact on the environment and water wastage. To reduce the environmental damage, a new technological improved factory, fundamentally for the elimination of water in the pulping process has been imported from Brazil. The new machinery is much more eco-friendly as it allows recycling of water, and thus reducing up to 90% of its usage than the old machines.
By cutting water waste, and composting the remaining coffee pulp for re-use on farm, the local area and waterways are significantly better.
To further reduce the environmental impact of the estate, in 2005 a water dam was constructed to utilize rain water and reduce the strain on the local steam. The capacity of the dam allows 50,000 cubic metres of rain water to be captured. During the dry season, the farm as well as the local inhabitants take advantage of this source of water.
The estate has won multiple awards for the quality of its coffee produced including the "Coffee Quality Award" presented by the Tanzania Coffee Association for the best quality coffee produced in the Estates Class in the year 2000 production season.
Currently K.L. Coffee Estate products are consumed globally including Japan, Europe, Canada and the USA.
