DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – On 21 and 22 February, the third G25 Summit of African Coffee Producing Countries was held in Dar es Salaam, chaired by Tanzania as the host country and co-organised by the Inter African Coffee Organisation (IACO, operating within the African Union), UNIDO’s counterpart for the implementation of the major project Advancing Climate resilience and Transformation in African Coffee Programme (ACT) dedicated to the regeneration and development of the coffee supply chain in Africa.
The third G25 Summit of African coffee-producing countries, with the theme ‘Unlocking employment opportunities for the youth through regeneration of the African coffee industry’, confirmed the strategic interest in revitalising coffee cultivation in Africa and ensuring greater added value through modernisation of the sector and capacity building.
It was also a natural continuation of the previous G25 meetings (Nairobi May 2022 and Kampala August 2023) and was attended by delegations from Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, as well as representatives of the African Union.
Following the G25 Summit, the Second Annual Coffee Week took place from 24-28 February 2025 in Dar es Salaam. Organised by the African Fine Coffees Association (AFCA) – a regional non-profit association that brings together the various coffee stakeholders active in African countries – in collaboration with the IACO and the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB).
The African High Quality Coffee Conference and Exhibition (26 – 28 February) themed ‘Regenerating the Coffee Value Chain’, attended by UNIDO experts, was a useful opportunity to discuss topics such as coffee agronomy, plant health, quality improvement and environmental sustainability of modern farming techniques.
The exhibition was attended by hundreds of international exhibitors active in the coffee chain, from the private sector and the world of Development Cooperation.
All the events saw a strong and structured presence of ‘Sistema Italia’.
On the private side, the Florentine industrial group La Marzocco (world leader in the manufacture of high-quality espresso machines) and L’Accademia del Caffè Espresso (a cultural coffee hub also founded by the La Marzocco group) were present.
Both entities were the main sponsors of the ‘barista championship’ (held between 26 and 27 February) in which 24 baristas from 12 African countries participated.
La Marzocco and the Coffee Academy also sponsored, in partnership with AFCA, a two-day plantation visit to Mbeya, in the southern highlands of the country (23 – 25 February). In addition, a one-day training session was organised for operators in the sector (the so-called ‘Coffee Camp’), which was attended by 25 technicians. The session focused on the management and maintenance, of espresso machines – as service, finding spare parts and managing water for extraction are major issues.
