Malawi

Malawi began to produce coffee in 1891, when some English colonists introduced the crop. Around 1930 some missionaries brought coffee seeds to the north; smallholder farmers bought those seeds and resold coffee parchment to the same missionaries. First cooperatives arose during 1950s, thanks to the financial support of British government, which provided coffee plants to local farmers. In 1957 was established the Misuku Coffee Growers Cooperative Society, which exported coffee to Tanzania through Moshi. In 1964, Malawi gained its independence and new societies were founded by the government. Anyway, some of these societies soon proved to be unsuccessful and Malawi’s coffee production took separate ways: it insisted on mass-producing and on new marketing strategies, but nevertheless it was constantly researching an high-quality product. A pivotal year for Malawi’s coffee industry is 1999, when the Smallholder Coffee Farmers Trust (SCFT) was founded. This society supported smallholder farmers through development programmes aimed at coffee production and through the diversification of crops. The highest level of development was reached with the introduction of Catimor, an hybrid coffee variety that is very resistant and high-yielding. Today Malawian coffee production is mainly based on the intensive cultivation of big plots of land and only 20% of the production comes from smallholders. Main varieties grown in Malawi are: Catimor, Geisha, SL28, Agaro and Bourbon. In recent years coffee producers are encouraged to cultivate most fine Geisha and SL28 varieties, which are more profitable.

Flowering season is from December to February and harvest season is from April to September, when coffee beans are finally harvested with the picking method. Exportations take place from August to April for a total of around 20,000 coffee sacks per year, which leave from the port of Durban, in South Africa.