Kagera

Kagera sits in northwest Tanzania on the western shore of Lake Victoria, bordering Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. It is the country’s principal Robusta coffee region, grown mainly in the Kyerwa and Karagwe districts, typically intercropped with banana trees for shade. Kagera is also one of Tanzania’s two main vanilla-growing areas (alongside Kilimanjaro), cultivated in Bukoba, Missenyi, Muleba, Karagwe, and Kyerwa districts, also under banana-tree shade. Vanilla output has been reported as declining in recent years, linked to farmers uprooting banana trees affected by Banana Xanthomonas wilt, removing vanilla’s needed shade. As with other Tanzanian coffee regions, Kagera’s Robusta ultimately moves through the Tanzania Coffee Board’s national marketing system centered on the Moshi Coffee Exchange auction.