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Israel shows interest in Tazania's berries as trade ties grow
What you need to know:
- The new ambassador of Israel to Tanzania, Michael Lotem, on his familiarisation tour to the Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha) in Arusha, said there’s a huge demand for berries back home.
Arusha. Israel is developing an appetite for Tanzania’s fresh berries, a move that is likely to strengthen bilateral trade ties and bring higher returns to smallholder growers.
The new ambassador of Israel to Tanzania, Michael Lotem, on his familiarisation tour to the Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha) in Arusha, said there’s a huge demand for berries back home.
“There’s immense demand for berries in Israel; let’s work together to open up this potential market for local farmers and exporters,” Ambassador Lotem said during the engagement with Taha Management led by its CEO, Ms Jacqueline Mkindi.
The diplomat, who presented his credentials to President Samia Suluhu Hassan in April 2023, said Israel is ready to allow the Tanzanian traders to access its market for fresh berries’.
In value terms, fruit and berry imports in Israel reached $282 million in 2022, formal data shows. Overall, total imports indicated a buoyant expansion from 2019 to 2022, as their value increased at an average annual rate of 16.1 percent in the period under review.
In 2023, the approximate wholesale price range for berries in Israel will be between $2.09 and $2.79 per kilogramme.
Studies indicate that berries taste great, are highly nutritious, and provide many health benefits, including for the heart and skin, lower blood sugar levels, and help prevent cancer.
Ambassador Lotem also pledged to work with Taha to bring an Israeli business delegation to Arusha in November to explore investments, joint ventures, and partnership opportunities as part of the mission to establish the East African Community (EAC)-Israel Chamber of Commerce.
He also agreed to help support Taha’s subsidiary company, Greencert, in securing a potential partner in Israel to establish a full-fledged state-of-the-art laboratory for food tasting. Greencert is an autonomous outfit offering inspection, certification, and testing services within the framework of different standards and management systems in the global agri-food sectors.
Taha’s CEO, Ms Mkindi, thanked the visiting envoy and his country for a good relationship with Tanzania and her organisation.
“We have a cordial relationship with Israeli companies in the technology drive in the horticulture industry, and with your visit, we hope the bond will be more robust,” Ms Mkindi noted.
She presented avocado, mangoes, pineapple, spices, herbs, and flowers as five key priority horticultural value chains with high potential for Israel and Tanzania’s partnership for mutual benefits.
Avocado, with an annual production level of 40,000 metric tonnes, has an annual growth rate of 20 percent, offering great potential for investors,” Ms Mkindi explained.
Mangoes, with a production of 450,000 MT, have an annual growth rate of two percent, while pineapples, with 454,008 MT, have an annual growth rate of four percent. Spices and herbs, with an annual growth rate of three percent, have a production level of about 31,242 MT, whereas flowers, with an annual growth rate of 4.9 percent, have a production level of 13,240 MT.
Taha CEO informed the Israel Ambassador that the horticultural industry earned the economy $779 million in 2019, up from $60 million in 2006, making the sub-sector a nascent venture to watch in terms of creating jobs and wealth.
“The government has developed a strategy intending to spur the horticulture industry to earn the economy $2 billion per year and create decent employment for a critical mass of youth and women along the entire value chain come 2030,” Ms Mkindi noted.
