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India’s Mahindra & Mahindra to set up tractor assembling plant in Tanzania
What you need to know:
- The facility will have the capacity to assemble 2,000 tractors annually.
Dar es Salaam. Agriculture has received a major boost during President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s just-concluded four-day visit to India, as Mahindra & Mahindra has agreed to set up a tractor assembly plant in Tanzania.
Speaking briefly on some of the benefits of the visit, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe said his docket was one of the major beneficiaries of the visit.
“Mahindra & Mahindra has agreed in principle to set up a tractor assembly facility in Tanzania. The facility will have the capacity to assemble 2,000 tractors annually,” he said.
Mr Bashe said a feasibility study to ascertain the viability of setting up such a facility in Tanzania has already been conducted, adding that apart from Mahindra & Mahindra, there was yet another Indian company that was willing to undertake the project.
Headquartered in Mumbai, Mahindra & Mahindra, which was established in 1945, is one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in India.
Meanwhile, Mr Bashe said Tanzanian farmers will now be able to sell an average of 200,000 tonnes of pigeon peas to India each year, thanks to a market access deal brokered during the just-concluded visit by President Hassan.
Before the start of the four-day visit, which was concluded on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, the Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister, Mr January Makamba, said access to a reliable market for pigeon peas was one of the issues that Tanzania would put on the discussion table.
And on Wednesday, Mr Bashe said Tanzania and India have reached an agreement that will see the latter import 200,000 tonnes of pigeon peas each year from the former for a period of up to three years.
“Currently, a kilogramme of pigeon peas fetches an average of $1. For the agreed tonnage, we should be talking of a business of over Sh450 billion per year,” Mr Bashe said on Wednesday.
He said there were several other deals involving farmers, including a key decision that will benefit cashew nut processors in Tanzania.
“India charges an import duty of 35 percent on processed cashew nuts being imported into the country. However, we have set up a processing factory in Tanzania, and thus we have agreed with Indian authorities that processed cashew nuts from that factory will not attract import duty,” said Mr. Bashe.
On the health front, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, John Jingu, said an agreement has been reached that will see Indian investors setting up a specialised facility for kidney treatment, including transplants, in Tanzania.
During the visit, President Samia and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to upgrade their countries’ historic bilateral relations to a strategic level.
