The 30 Annual General Meeting of Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU 1984) has finally agreed that some properties belonging to the poor performing Tanzania Coffee Curing Company (TCCCO) of Moshi be sold so as to meet the company’s demands.

Some of the demands include the purchase of a new curing plant, paying the firm’s outstanding debts as well as tax to the government.

Earlier, members of one of the oldest leading cooperatives in the country had objected the move to sell the company’s property that will be listed next month.

The major reason they gave was that the cooperative leadership had earlier decided to sell the property alone without involving the members.

TCCCO chairman Maynard Swai said the cooperative union’s debts currently stand at 757.2m/-, while the firm’s capacity to cure coffee has dropped from 44,894 tonnes in the 1984/85 season to 3,787 tonnes in 2011/12.

Swai, who is also the chairman of KNCU, said given the poor state of present curing plants, the firm is obliged to pay 13m/- in power supply every month.

To rescue the 56 ear old curing factory from total collapse, he said, the cooperative union is going to purchase a new plant form Pinhalense Company of Brazil at the cots of USD686, 538.

The factory, he said, belongs to KNCU with 54 percent shares, Tanzania Coffee Growers Association (ACU) Arusha Cooperative UNION (ACU), Vuasu Cooperative Union (VUASU), Morogoro Regional Cooperative Union (MORECU), RIVACU, TARECU and BUHA.

It is reported that the factory is currently in a dilapidated situation such that it is failing to meet operational costs.

“The factory has four huge plants, whose running costs are vey high. We are failing to pay even power and water bills and the cured coffee cannot be graded according to the required quality,” he said.

With the initial capacity of 50,000 tonnes and a godown capable of storing the same amount of coffee, the factory was built to cure all Arabica coffee grown in Tanzania and Northern Malawi. It has since been facing competition from privately built plants and at the moment its operations are under 10 percent.