Iyenga AMCOS (Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society) won first place in the 2019 Taste of Harvest competition, which means that they had the #1 coffee in all of Tanzania that year!

The co-op has 193 registered members, and collects coffee from just over 500 farmers. Most of these farms are about 1-2 hectares (about 2.5-5 acres), and none are bigger than 5 hectares (about 12 acres). 

Access to water is one of Iyenga’s biggest challenges, especially during the dry season. We’ve been told that conversations during the annual cooperative meetings include ideas for damming a local river or creating a rain-water reservoir. This is especially important because all of the coffee is processed at a washing station, which requires a lot of water.

A washing station is where the coffee seeds (or beans, as we know them!) get removed from the fruit, washed, and then dried. The machine that removes the coffee fruit is called a de-pulper, and if you visit Iyenga AMCOS during the harvest you’ll find the de-pulper running from 4pm-8pm, right around sundown.

Their de-pulper is a government-granted and eco-efficient machine (pictured) that conserves water. This machine pulps 1.5 metric tons of cherry per hour!  By using it, they were able to increase their capacity to process coffee fruit four times over.