TANZANIA has been selected to host Inter Africa Coffee Organisation (IACO)’s Centre of Excellence for Coffee to be based Kilimanjaro Region, with plans underway to establish coffee training centre in Dodoma.

The Tanga-based Coffee Institute will become   regional research hub, Minister for Agriculture Hussein Bashe announced recently.

The announcement comes ahead of the third G25 African Coffee Summit, scheduled for February 21–22, 2025, at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam. The summit’s theme, ‘Unlocking Employment Opportunities for Youth Through Regeneration of the African Coffee Industry’ seeks to address underperformance of the crop across the continent.

Bashe highlighted efforts to boost coffee production in Africa, noting the region’s untapped potential despite being home to half of the world’s coffee-producing countries. Africa’s production has declined from 25 million bags in the 1960s to just 11 million bags today, even as global consumption rises.

“Youth migration to other industries has left an aging population of farmers, which threatens the future of coffee production,” Bashe said. To address this, Tanzania has launched   youth entrepreneurship project featuring mobile cafeterias to promote domestic coffee consumption in public spaces like universities, hospitals, and events.

He also emphasised the importance of establishing Centres of Excellence in partnership with universities to train youth across the coffee value chain, from seed to cup.

The G25 summit will bring together ministers of agriculture, senior government officials, coffee growers, processors, traders, and other stakeholders to discuss ways to create youth employment opportunities in coffee-producing and consuming countries. Key areas include value addition, access to financing, and trade facilitation through frameworks like the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

The summit builds on prior milestones, including the 2022 Nairobi Declaration and the 2023 Kampala Declaration which urged for inclusion of coffee as a strategic commodity in the African Union’s Agenda 2063. In February 2024, the AU adopted the inclusion, recognizing IACO as a specialised agency and setting the stage for policy advancements, funding opportunities, and the removal of trade barriers in the coffee subsector.