Malawi Mzuzu

PLEASE NOTE: ROASTED TO ORDER. About the producers: Malawi Mzuzu Coffee Planters Co-operative Union was founded in 1999 by a group of small crop coffee producers looking to work together to improve their coffee quality, processing facilities, and community conditions. Coffee has been grown in Malawi since the 1880s and some of the small crop farmers in this co-operative can trace their crops back to the 1930s. The Co-operative Union has been a huge success. Processing stations have been built in the growing regions so the individual farmers don’t have to travel so far with their crop each day. Central mills and storage ensure that the coffee is correctly stored and accounted for. Cupping labs and education sessions empower the producers to analyse their own crops for quality in line with international standards. The community has partnered with Fairtrade to create better conditions, and they are currently working toward organic certification. This increases the bargaining power of the producers, which in turn helps grow the economy of the region. The Malawi Mzuzu Coffee Planters Co-operative Union are organised, inspired and ambitious. “I want to empower my fellow women to do what I am doing -- to have a good house, to eat good food, and to educate their children. I want my rural village to become a town.”Linly Msyali Mkalira, Mzuzu producer