Malawi AB Sable Farm RFA
About This Coffee
The History of Coffee in Malawi
Just a little smaller than Mississippi, Malawi is a landlocked country and yet is home to over 400 miles of lakefront land. One-third of Malawi is taken up by Lake Malawi, one of the world’s deepest lakes, reflecting the altitudes that borders its shores. Coffee first came to Malawi in 1878 and was grown by both local farmers and Europeans, but production and exports were nominal until the 1950’s when the government distributed seeds in an effort to encourage an increase in cash crops for export. This effort was primarily focused on farmers in the northernmost highlands on the border with Tanzania, the “Misuku Hills.” Enough small farmers started growing coffee that in 1957 they formed the Misuku Coffee Growers Cooperative Society, which is still in operation today.
Growing Coffee in Malawi
Like Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and eastern Zambia, Malawi is part of the East African Rift Valley which, geologically and as far as coffee is concerned, means ideal altitudes and volcanic soil. In addition to the many smallholder farms of the Misuku Hills in the highlands of northern Malawi above the shores of Lake Malawi, there are a handful of larger estates in the south on what explorer Dr. Livingstone dubbed the “Shire Plateau,” also known as the Shire Highlands. The small coffee farmers of central and northern Malawi have a long tradition of forming cooperatives, or “Unions” of farmers. Compared to tobacco, sugar, and tea, coffee production has always been small, less than 5% of exports, but that number is growing as a focus on quality processing for the specialty market increases and farmers are incentivized by better prices.
- Subregion Mangochi, Southern Malawi
- Farm Name Sable Farm
- Producer Type Single Estate
- Processing Washed
- Bag Types Grain Pro / Ecotact
- Plant Species Arabica
- Variety Batian, Catimor 129, Caturra
- Min Growing Altitude 1150m
- Max Growing Altitude 1300m
- Screen Size 15 Up
- On Sale No
- Top Lot No
- Price Per Kg £7.75
- Status Spot
- Certifications Rainforest Alliance Certified (IP)
- Coffee Grade MWI CA WA AB
- CTRM Contract Number P8002486-3
- Origin Malawi
- Warehouse Vollers Hamburg