Dar es Salaam — Small Industries Development Organisation (Sido) has started producing machines for coffee preprocessing.
Each machine can process 300 kilos of coffee per hour. Demand for such machines is high, Sido says.
A Sido workshop in Mbeya has a capacity to manufacture two machines a week, according to the assistant technology development manager, Mr Cosmas Kinasa. "We have been receiving many orders from farmers and entrepreneurs around Mbeya Region."
According to him, the workshop has been manufacturing coffee pulper and coffee roaster machines for preprocessing.
"Our aim is to serve small-scale sellers and farmers who used to sell raw coffee at giveaway prices while buying farm inputs and processed coffee at high prices," he said.
He believes that the machines will help farmers to sell preprocessed coffee at relatively good prices. "I believe this technology is going to change the lives of the famers and create employment."
A single machine can employ up to three people. He said the lack of modern equipment and skilled manpower affects the workshop. "We urge the government to give us modern equipment to produce more quality machines."
He also pleaded with the government to send many skilled people to the workshop.
He said they fail to compete with imported machines due to the shortage of skilled workers and modern equipment. Sido marketing manager Novatus Lihepanyama told The Citizen that the organization would to come up with best solutions to help small-scale famers.
"We will continue to produce machines for processing cassava, groundnuts, honey and other produce." He said the aim was to add value to produce for sale at higher prices -- locally and internationally.
Sido was established in October 1973 to formulate policies and support small-scale industries in rural and urban areas.
Some of the best-known activities are technology development centres, training- cum-production centres, hire purchase schemes for equipment, technology development, technology transfer through arrangements and exchanges with industries in Europe and Asia.
Its role as a government instrument for small-scale industrialisation has been redefined to respond to the political and economic changes. In 1988, Sido started a process of restructuring, aiming at improved effectiveness and efficiency as well as long-term sustainability.
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