Over 3,500 thousand coffee growers are scattered in the five coffee growing areas. There is a Coffee Farmer Association for each of the coffee growing areas. The associations are responsible for the coffee seedlings production, farming input, mobilization, road maintenance and primary processing of the coffee. These are assisted by coffee association advisors, one allocated to each of the five coffee growers associations.

Due to the terrain of the coffee growing areas, almost 70-80% of all the coffee is grown on terraces. Most of the coffee is grown with organic fertilizer; disease and insect pest control is carried out using integrated pest management principles and most of farmers don't use any chemicals unless the situation becomes serious.

Coffee trees are not allowed to produce any crop untill they are three years old. At this stage the tress are allowed to carry half crop, and they will remain in production for 5-10 years. Flowering starts between September and November depending on location. Harvesting is carried out between May and October of every year.

Varieties

The farmers grow only Arabica coffee. Popular varieties grown are Agaro and   Geisha, although Agaro is becoming unpopular with farmers due to problems with coffee berry   disease and leaf rust. Catimor populations are becoming very popular amongst the farmers because of their ability to withstand Leaf Rust. There are more plantings of this variety now than any other variety. Some old varieties introduced by early missionaries still exist including Mundo Novo, Blue Mountian and Catura.

Coffee Processing

Cherry harvesting by farmers starts as early as 6.00am. Red Cherries are individually picked by hand and placed in bamboo woven baskets our old jute bags, before transporting the cherries on the head to the nearest pulpery (See image CC-05 above right). These pulperies (machinery that separates coffee pulps from beans) are located centrally within a 5km radius of the farms. This enables farmers to deliver their coffee before fermentation starts in the harvesting baskets/bags. Farmers manage the primary process on their own with technical assistance provided by coffee association advisors and some extension workers.

Once the coffee cherries are pulped, the beans are let into washing channels where floaters, lights and sinkers are separated and led into separate fermentation tanks; floaters are discarded while light, medium light and sinkers are fermented as separate grade. After fermentation is completed within 48-72hrs, the wet parchment is placed on skin drying trays before being placed on raised drying tables. Throughout the process, gravity fed fresh water is used; this helps in producing beans which are clean without off flavours.The coffee is dried in the sun on drying tables, a process which is completed when the bean becomes brittle. Dried parchment is placed in jute bags weighing 55Kgs and placed in grass thatched parchment sheds for 10-14 days. This helps in conditioning the coffee while waiting for lorries to collect the parchment and take it to the central hulling plant in Mzuzu.

Secondary Processing

On arrival of each delivery of coffee parchment in Mzuzu, the quality control department of the trust takes samples of parchment for quality checks, carried out in the trusts laboratory. The checks focus on the moisture content, parchment classification, roast assessment and cup tasting

Depending on the result of the quality checks, the parchment coffee is hulled using the trusts hulling plant, which polishes and grades the beans. Sorting of the diseased, blacks and other bad beans is carried out manually by experienced workers who are employed seasonally.

Finally lots of 285 x 60Kgs bags of green beans are made after careful cup tasting.

Marketing

Coffee marketing in Malawi is completely liberalized. Farmers are free to sell coffee to anyone, provided they make a profit. The trusts objective is to pay the farmers a fair price to help in poverty alleviation. The trust usually pays farmers between 60-80% of the export price realized.

The main bulk of the 200 tonnes plus annually exported by the trust goes mainly to Germany and South Africa, some also goes to Switzerland, Holland, USA and Japan. The trust also sells approximate 24 tonnes annually into the domestic market and if you visit any of the major hotels in Malawi or foreign embassies you are bound to be served a cup of Mzuzu coffee.

The production of coffee has to be a carefully, patiently controlled process to deliver the highest grade as used by Mzuzu Coffee.

In the nursery, two seeds per plant pot are sown and after eight to ten months are transferred to fields in rows.

Irrigated plants will produce coffee after two years but non-irrigated trees will take three years to start producing.

In Mzuzu Coffee's designated plantations in Malawi, the mature trees flower in October and the red berry fruit which contain the coffee seeds, is ready for harvesting in April/May. The berries are handpicked every two weeks until August.

A pulping machine separates the coffee seeds from the fruity pulp before the beans are fermented in tanks for 24 hours until they feel gravelly or gritty. Over or under fermenting leads to coffee with a too-fruity taste.

The next step is to wash the beans which is a quality self-selection process - the higher grade beans sink while the lesser grade floats and is destined for use in instant coffees or products with a percentage of coffee mixed with chicory.

Drying takes one to two weeks, during which any damaged and remaining low quality beans are eliminated. After the sale, usually a few months later to allow the moisture levels to become consistant, a hulling machine removes a parchment covering to reveal the green bean.

Grading is a process in which fan-forced air from underneath the beans separates the beans from any chips and chaff before they are sieved for size ready for dispatch.

An important aspect of the grading and sales process is 'liquoring,' a term used for tasting each batch in and out of storage.

Planters and brokers (who buy the beans) test the beans in green bean form and roasted comparing the tastes with previous crops and with beans from other estates to establish final grading and price.

Roasting

To achieve an even roast the coffee has to be continuously turning. This usually occurs in a revolving drum in batch roasters or jiggled around on an airbed in continuous flow roasters. Level of roasting is adjusted by

1) the length of time the coffee is in the roaster
2) the temperature
3) on continuous flow roasters, the rate at which the coffee is fed into the intake.

The roasting process produces two distinct cracks in the coffee as it expands. The aroma changes from one of being just dusty, no different from dried peas, to a fabulously inviting coffee aroma. It is essential not to allow burning or the oils are released and the coffee is left lifeless and firey.