Challenges And Global Marketing Strategy For Tanzanian Coffee

In the layout of Tanzania's national economy agriculture occupies an important proportion.In the agricultural sector coffee is the brand industry of Tanzania and large foreign export sector.The share of Tanzanian coffee in the international market is small and the domestic consumption of coffee is limited.Tanzania coffee industry can be developed and the whole structure of the agricultural production can be changed by the gradual adjustment of the agricultural sector structure and the improvement of the transportation sector especially the expansion of the Tazara railway.Due to various challenges the impacts of coffee industry have not been seen in the process of reducing poverty and in improving lives of smallholder farmers.This study points out that improving smallholder farmers is the vital solution to fight the increased rate of poverty in Tanzanian economy.The focus is to study the problems encountered by smallholder farmers in coffee production and marketing domestically and internationally.Based on the analysis of the coffee industry in Tanzania it can be said that cooperative unions have many shortcomings which make it hard to compete in the global market.Although the government initiated a coffee development strategy 2011-2021 but its efficiency has not been seen so far.The challenges brought by macro factors are mainly reflected in the following aspects;Tanzanian government does not strongly support the foreign trade and direct marketing of smallholder farmers in the international market.Tanzania's economic development is relatively backward which extremely affects the pricing of coffee products.The technological level of the smallholder farmers in Tanzania is low and difficult to compete with other suppliers in the international market.This paper argues that Tanzania smallholder farmers face problems in product marketing,price formulation,channel sales,and the choice of promotion means due to its own constraints.Based on these problems the paper puts forward the marketing strategy optimization plan and safeguard measures for Tanzania smallholder farmers and the Tanzania government respectively expecting to improve the performance of coffee sector and raise economic development.