Tea Stories, Traceable from Farm to Cup

Here is a sneak peek of traceable stories from our farmers and suppliers – enjoy!

Mama Rugathe

Mama & Baba Rugathe live in Marangu, which is a small town on the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Mama is a member of the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM), which supports farmers with training, advisory, and linkages in the organic sector. She runs a farm of about 2 hectares with a variety of herbs and a bit of coffee. Her herbs include aromatic plants including mint, rosemary, lemongrass, lemon thyme, and basil. Baba has built his own milling machine and is a local carpenter. They both also have a livestock business. Talk about a power couple!

After visiting Mama & Baba a few times and sourcing from them for over a year, we decided to provide more support for their business to grow, while also increasing their supply to us. We asked Mama what she would need to improve her quality and quantity of organic herbs, and she decided that a solar dryer would increase her efficiency and production capacity. Kazi Yetu invested in the solar dryer on a credit basis with Mama Rugathe, and she is paying back with mint and rosemary over time at 0% interest. This is creating shared value on a microfinance level!

 

Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania

Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT) is an organization in Morogoro that promotes holistic agriculture growth for farmers in the Uluguru Mountains and beyond. SAT supports their farmers with training, ongoing monitoring and advisory, local and export market linkages, certification, and inputs. We source hibiscus from SAT and hope to work with them to produce new herbal teas! We also support the FairCarbon4Us project by SAT through planting trees to offset carbon emissions – stay tuned in our upcoming blog on this!

 

Tropical Treasures

Tropical Treasures is an organic tea farm and processing facility in Moshi, run by a German couple that has invested for decades in Tanzania. Mama Bente spends her days training tea farmers and supervising the processing unit, which produces whole leaf orthodox black and green tea.

 

1001 Organic

1001 Organic is a social enterprise spice company that directly supports cooperatives and farmers with training, infrastructure, certification, inputs and market linkages, exporting high quality spices globally. They are located in Zanzibar with a more recent footprint in Tanga, both locations having favorable weather conditions for spice production. This is a photo of the cinnamon bark drying after harvest and shaving, to be blended in our teas!

 

Elven Agri

Elven Agri is an agri-business in Bagamoyo that runs a farm and out-grower scheme, as well as a state-of-the-art processing facility. All ingredients are organic certified and Elven Agri guarantees quality, scale, and high return for farmers. We source lemongrass, moringa, and ginger from them.

Natural Extracts Industries

Natural Extracts Industries specializes in sustainably grown natural extracts and flavour ingredients, including vanilla and cocoa. Their focus is on sustainable agriculture, creating market linkages for farmers, and increasing local value addition like Kazi Yetu. We source roasted cocoa husks from them as a byproduct of their cocoa extracts!

 

These are a few of our farmer stories. Stay tuned and follow our journey for more!

How can you help Kazi Yetu?

• Buy our perks for your family, friends, and colleagues
• Send us ideas and we are always open to feedback

Thank you and stay tuned!