BRELA moves to educate crop dealers on grain exports regulations

The Business Registrations and Licensing Agency has started impacting knowledge to farmers, crop business people and other agencies on the requirement to establish companies for official trading of agricultural produce.

This follows recent complaints from farmers, crop dealers and transporters of agricultural goods claiming they had been blocked to take their farm produce across the borders into neighbouring countries by customs officials.

“We are hereby embarking on a series of training sessions to educate all exporters of agricultural products on proper regulations to follow before attempting to ferry grains, legumes and vegetables through border posts,” stated Head of Business Registration Department at BRELA, Isdor Nkindi.

Representing the Brela’s Chief Executive at the three-day workshops in Arusha, Nkindi told crop traders that as per government directives, all buyers of farm produce should first establish registered companies that keep ledger books, listed at the Tanzania Revenue Authority and with an official contact address.

“But the government through Brela also takes time to educate crop traders and even assist them on the process to register companies and make their transactions compliant to national laws,” explained Nkindi.

He said the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency also issues the relevant permits of exports for all traders that deal with agricultural produce, adding that most exporters were not breaking the laws purposely but were ignorant of the procedures.

Buying and selling of agricultural goods in Tanzania has always been an informal type of business, with unaccounted transactions and little if any record keeping.

The Acting Regional Administrative Secretary, Ramadhan Madeleka said the government has opted to fund the training of crop exporters on the required regulations in order to reduce complaints.

“The Government is not trying to prohibit, inhibit or undermine the business between farmers and their crop buyers; the move is just to keep everything under check to ensure that all parties and the state benefit from the sector,” said Madekela.

One of the farm crop exporters, Mao Chizma, said the training has helped them realize the importance of doing business in an official way, because in the past they used to think the registration process was expensive and cumbersome.

“But now we have learned that it used to be more expensive to operate clandestinely as we were susceptible to rogue officials demanding bribes at border posts, in order to allow our consignments pass through,” he said.

Now, there is a new directive issued by the government that all agricultural produce dealers, farm input traders and other stakeholders of the industry should transform their transactions into a more official and recognized entity.

The move, according to the officials,targets to formalize agricultural crops trading, improve transactions, protect local growers and regulate prices, in addition to create portals for overseas exports.

A few weeks ago, speaking in Dodoma the Minister of Agriculture, Hussein Bashe said the rule also applies to foreigners who come to buy agricultural harvests in Tanzania.

The minister explained that the new arrangement in crop business is being undertaken to stamp out dubious rackets in the agriculture sector where some unscrupulous traders and firms have been taking gullible farmers for a ride