Growing coffee for brighter futures in Zimbabwe

With Nespresso’s support, Zimbabwean smallholder farmers are reviving a once thriving coffee industry, and reaping rich rewards.

By Karen Carmichael
Published 6 May 2020, 17:50 BST
Growing coffee for brighter futures in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe was once known as the ‘breadbasket of Africa’ for its fertile fields and valleys that grew wheat, tobacco, and corn for export across the continent and abroad. Coffee was a key crop, and globally recognized where connoisseurs sipped cups of the smooth, fruity Zimbabwe blends at trendy coffee shops in London, Tokyo, and Johannesburg. The country’s coffee industry suffered devastating setbacks over the past couple of decades, but Zimbabwean coffee is now experiencing a resurgence—and it’s changing the lives of determined smallholder farmers.

Swiss coffee brand Nespresso and international NGO TechnoServe have been working to revitalize coffee sectors in East Africa since 2015. By serving as a buyer to local farmers, Nespresso helps to stabilize the market while also financing TechnoServe’s staff to work on the ground with the communities; training farmers and providing technical expertise in recommended practices. More and more farmers in Zimbabwe are beginning to grow coffee as they see how it can lead to a better livelihood.

Zachariah Mukwinya, a farmer from Chavhanga village in Mutasa district, has seen a big change in farmers' knowledge of agronomy practices since Nespresso launched the Reviving Origins program. Now, the farmers are more aware of how to properly space and plant their trees, prune excess branches, identify and sort ripe cherries, and soak their beans in water (removing the unhealthy ones) before taking them to be milled. The result has been a noticeable improvement in quality.

Photograph by Rena Effendi

“Farmers are coming back to coffee from other crops,” says Nespresso AAA Sustainable Coffee Programme™ manager Midway Bhunu, who coordinates implementation in the Honde Valley region of Zimbabwe. Midway also helped to develop the curriculum of the programme’s AAA Academy, which provides lessons on crop management to local farmers. The academy is contributing to the empowerment of women as well, by encouraging trainings to try to include as many women as men so they can learn the same skills. Current female participation in Nespresso AAA programmes in Zimbabwe is 47 percent.

One of these farmers is Jesca Kangai, a planter from Pangeti village in the Mutasa district of Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands. She’s seen a distinct increase in the quality of her coffee since the AAA programme came to Zimbabwe. “Nespresso is teaching us good coffee farming methods,” she says, “from pruning the shrubs, cutting so it can grow tall, selecting the seeds, cleaning and grading, and milling to get high quality coffee.” More than 2,000 farmers are now working with Nespresso’s AAA programme, and coffee production has increased by 7 percent, while quality production has increased by 51 percent.

Jesca Kangai, 35, lives in Pangeti village in the Mutasa district of Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands. She's been growing coffee for nearly 20 years and now produces prizewinning beans. Nespresso Reviving Origins program has been a huge support for Jesca. The training provided by the AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program has taught her how to properly manage the trees, and she's seen a distinct increase in the quality of her coffee.

Photograph by Rena Effendi

For Jesca’s family, coffee has proven to be a prosperous and life-changing undertaking, enabling her family to build a house, buy livestock, and even send her son to the best school in the community. With this kind of support, Zimbabwe’s coffee sector is starting to once again become a flourishing industry, allowing hundreds of smallholders to make a good living. 

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