KAGERA CO-OPERATIVE UNION (KCU) LTD is a voluntary Association of 124 Primary Cooperative Societies representing over 60,000 small farmers of mainly Robusta Coffee grown in Kagera region, in the North Western part of Tanzania.

Robusta, the first coffee introduced in Tanzania was brought to the Bukoba district of Kagera by homecoming warlords from the Congo and Gabon, early in the 17th century. It continued to be used as a traditional item for ritual performance, stimulant and a vital source of strength for many years later, until when it was commercialised in the beginning of the 20th century.

Kagera Robusta and natural Arabica coffees grown there, account for 25% of some 800,000 bags (50kg each) of Tanzania's annual coffee output. The remainder, 75% is the component of washed Arabica.

The reality of KCU
As noted above, we are a Union of 124 Primary Cooperative Societies, scattered within two districts of Bukoba and Muleba in Kagera region, North West of Tanzania (west of Lake Victoria).

The two districts cover about 15,000 sq km; characterized by Traditional villages – usually we have one or two primary societies in each village. Each primary society is owned by about 500 small coffee producers; Kagera Cooperative Union Ltd therefore has about 60,000 members. For a primary society to be member to KCU Ltd, it has to own shares in KCU. Each primary cooperative society has about nine committee members, and three representatives to the KCU General Assembly which convenes twice a year – This is the supreme body for KCU Ltd decision making.

    KCU MEMBERS AT A GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Primary cooperative societies also hold General Assemblies before each assembly of the union.

Since its establishment in 1950, Kagera Cooperative Union Ltd members mobilized themselves to market their own coffee. Their marketing had till 1990 always ended at Auction, previously at Mombasa port of Kenya, and later at Moshi in Tanzania; where coffee exporters gather to bid for different coffee lots. Our cooperative movement has since then changed shape at different stages, but always maintaining the same goal; service to its members; and a long term plan of self sufficiency in marketing own crop. Our connection to the Fair trade partners in 1990 was a corner stone to our members new error of direct connection to the consumer community.


    KCU MANAGEMENT MEETING

How it all started

How KCU Ltd traded in coffee before and after 1990:
Coffee was collected at the primary society; this is where KCU Ltd transported it from, to the processing plant, before railage to the port of exit.

• Samples were picked at the port and presented to Tanzania Coffee Board for auctioning.
• For the farmers under KCU Ltd, knowledge of where coffee goes usually ended at the auction point.
• The visit to KCU Ltd by Fair trade original in 1990, (by then known as S.O.S Wereldhandel) stimulated an idea of our involvement in direct coffee exports. This visist came at a time when prices were disappointingly low due to the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement (ICA) in 1989.
• It is at the same moment that the government was disassociating her self from coffee price setting for farmers.
• The coffee cooperative movements which were not linked to the Fair trade system collapsed with these changes mainly because they could not recover production costs from the conventional prices they received form the market.
• Those linked to the Fair trade system survived mainly because what they shipped to the market fetched at least the Fair trade minimum price with which one can easily recover costs of production.