Trying to keep pace with the Masaai just wasn’t working so I have purchased a bike. I like to think this is the Fairtrade green, however, in Moshi the colour is better known to represent the mobile company Zantel. Everyone has therefore suggested I get a Zantel t-shirt and start doing marketing for them. I'm not so sure, please send me a Fairtrade t-shirt instead!
However, the bike might not get much use for a while since the rains have now started and when I say rain, I mean it REALLY rains. Bucket loads. I bought some wellington boots from the Farmers Association, so when I am not promoting Zantel, I look like a farmer. The rains are definitely a good thing for farmers, travelling on the roads out of town you can see everyone busily planting.
The visit to the KNCU Fairtrade coffee tourism tour a few weeks ago was enlightening. A real diversification project in action. KNCU has 67 primary societies in total. 7 of which have a tourism project. I visited a village up the slopes of the mountain called Uru Msuni. 3 primary societies benefit from this particular project which started in 2005. They have a campsite, a restaurant, a coffee tour as well as other guided walks. 70% of the income from the tourism project goes directly to a community development fund which is farmer owned. The rest is used to run the tourism office at KNCU level.
It is well advertised in Moshi, you can’t miss it and as a result lots of tourists do visit. Something I found very encouraging is that according to our guide, all the tourists ask about Fairtrade and want to know why they can’t buy Fairtrade KNCU coffee here in Moshi. The guides also wanted us to help them understand more about Fairtrade so that they could advise tourists better. The AFN is aiming to work on value addition so that coffee and other products can indeed be labelled in Africa, bringing even more benefits to farmers.
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