The first half of our delegation's trip to Tanzania was spent with the Mt. Meru Coffee Project (MMCP).  MMCP is a joint venture between a Lutheran dioces in Mt. Meru, Tanzania and a Lutheran dioces in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The project's chief aim is to improve the standard of living of coffee farmers on Mt. Meru while providing excellent coffee to American consumers.  MMCP is very different from the cooperatives we've visited, so let me try to explain.
    The Mt. Meru Coffee Project was incorporated in 2007 as a non profit in the United States and has one employee: Emil (wearing the white shirt), who represented Mt. Meru and showed us around their operations.  The purpose of MMCP is to help guide the new Mt. Meru Specialty Coffee Growers Association (henceforth described as 'the Association') to a place of economic stability while importing and marketing the Association's coffee in the U.S.  It is the hope of the Mount Meru Coffee Project that this transfer will happen in 2012, although MMCP is not growing as fast as hoped.  The structure of the Association is similar to that of the Gumutindo and Oromia cooperatives we visited: the Association is owned by 32 small farmer groups that are in turn owned directly by 2400 farmers.  According to the Association's bylaws, "we of Meru will fully own and manage quality coffee production all the way to export."  The Association is not a cooperative, however, and thus does not have the same governmental oversight and guiding principles.
    Another difference between this organization and the co-ops we visited is that we were primarily meeting with Emil and the Bishop that sits on the governing bodies of MMCP and the Association.  We met with two farmers - although the time was very brief - and we did not meet with any small farmer groups.  Our delegation did visit the facility that MMCP uses to process the farmers' coffee, however, where we were able to learn much about MMCP and their operations.  MMCP grew out of a delegation from the Lutheran dioces in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1997.  At this time farmers cooperatives in Tanzania had collapsed due to trade liberalization, corruption, and low prices.  Responding to the low price of coffee and poor living conditions of Tanzanian coffee farmers, the two dioces worked together to build the MMCP.  
    From July through October when the coffee is ripe and ready to be picked, MMCP sends trucks to the coffee farms they work with to pick up the coffee cherries.  The trucks then bring the cherries to MMCP's processing facilities where MMCP hires seasonal workers to wet process the coffee.  MMCP deducts an equal per-pound cost of transport from the price they pay to the farmers for their coffee.  Here are the facilities they use to process the coffee.  This green depulping machine removes the coffee beans from the cherries and sorts them.  The beans then sit in water for several hours until they are then transferred to drying racks to dry.  The end result of this process is the dry parchment coffee which is then sent to a hulling plant in nearby Moshi.  At the hulling plant they remove the dry parchment surrounding the bean and sort the beans, leaving the green coffee beans ready for export.
    Emil said the project is "completely led by farmers" and the local Lutheran dioces is supporting the project in many ways.  Leaders of the dioces said that this project is "faith in action."  The dioces own the land on which one of the three processing facilities that MMCP uses is located and the Bishop of the Mount Meru dioces is on the board of the MMCP and on the advisory board of the Association.  The dioces also insures that MMCP trains the Board of Directors of the association and of the small farmer groups that compose the association to educate and stabilize leadership of these organizations.  The dioces also supports these coffee farmers by growing seedlings for sale to farmers and working with the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute.  The trees they are cultivating on the dioces land will reach full productivity in ten years.  80% of the Mt. Meru Lutheran dioces are farmers of some kind, the Bishop said.
    The coffee farms we visited grew coffee in the shade and practiced little intercropping, although Emil indicated that intercropping with beans and banana trees is common among their other coffee farms.  The fertilizer used on farmers' crops is manure and Emil conveyed to us that the coffee sold by the MMCP is "almost organic."  Farmers who are members of the Association use some pesticides and herbicides to grow coffee and other crops. In contrast with the cooperatives we visited in Uganda and Ethiopia where labor was provided almost exclusively by the family and community, many of these farmers hire laborers to work on their farms.  Farmers in Tanzania also have a higher standard of living – well built houses, access to education, access to clinics, and access to potable water, although roads were unpaved.  Those we talked to discussed how the higher price – triple the inital coffee price before MMCP started – paid to farmers through MMCP helps farmers "send their kids to school and manage their life."  MMCP has also started a savings and credit society for their farmers and their families.  These are the many ways that MMCP and the Association benefit the farmers they work with.  While still new and working towards their goals of financial sustainability, MMCP and the Association have already done much to serve the goals they set out to achieve.  You can try some of these farmers' coffee (and support MMCP and the Association) by purchasing some Tanzanian Peaberry from Just Coffee.  Enjoy!