How World Cup finals sent Tanzania's meat exports soaring

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania benefited from the Fifa World Cup finals in Qatar in the form of increased meat exports to the Gulf state during the month-long football extravaganza.

Qatar is the largest importer of meat from Tanzania, especially goat meat, followed by Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Other leading destinations are Kenya, Togo, Kuwait, China, Comoros and Canada.

In November 2022, Tanzania’s meat exports more than doubled to 1,423 tonnes, an increase of 125 percent from 632 tonnes that were exported in October, according to the Tanzania Meat Board (TMB).

Goat meat is by far the leading export item, accounting for about 74 percent of meat exports at 1,047 tonnes, followed by mutton (343 tonnes), beef (32 tonnes), chicken (0.67 tonne) and pork (0.2 tonne).

Thirty-seven percent of the meat Tanzania exported in November went to Qatar, according to TMB.

The value of the meat exports also increased from $2.9 million (about Sh6.8 billion) in October to $5.37 million (about Sh12.5 billion) in November.

“The World Cup greatly boosted demand for meat in Qatar, which is currently our biggest market,” TMB marketing manager John Chasama told The Citizen.

In October, the value of meat exports dropped to $2.9 million from $3.8 million registered in September, with stakeholders blaming the fall on drought, which affected meat quality.

Mr Chasma said the situation was still affecting meat quality, but the impact on goat meat was not as pronounced as on beef and other types of meat.

“Cattle and goats are affected by drought in different ways. The impact is greater on cattle,” he said.

Tan Choice Limited, one of the companies which processes meat exports, said there was a spike in demand for goat meat exports in November, and attributed the increase to the World Cup finals hosted by Qatar.

The company’s business operations manager, Dr Sero Luwongo, said Tanzania could have exported to Qatar much more than what it had actually sent to the Gulf state.

“We could have exported more goat meat than we did, but there were some challenges, especially with regard to transport from Tanzania to Qatar,” he said.

The company – which operates under the Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) – owns modern slaughterhouses that process goat meat and mutton at Soga in Kibaha District, Coast Region.

According to Dr Luwongo, Tanzania’s exports could have jumped even more if there were better transport links between the country and Qatar during the World Cup.

In October, Qatar Airways announced adjustments to its network in order to cope with a surge in demand for travel to and from Qatar during the World Cup finals, which Qatar hosted from November 20 to December 18.

“Due to unprecedented demand and a greater focus on bringing football fans to the first Fifa World Cup in the Middle East, Qatar Airways is temporarily adapting its operations to a more point-to-point model,” the carrier said.

“Throughout the course of the tournament, we will be reducing frequencies and provisionally scaling back flights to several destinations across our network,” it added.

Tanzania was also affected by the adjustment as frequencies were slashed.

The Dar es Salaam frequencies were reduced from ten to seven times weekly, while those to and from Kilimanjaro International Airport were reduced from ten to between three and seven.

The Zanzibar frequencies were also reduced from 14 a week to between four and seven.

Official data from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development shows that the total number of cattle in Tanzania stood at 35.3 million as of May 2022. The country was also home to a total of 25.6 million goats during the same period.

Similarly, the sheep population stood at 8.8 million by the end May 2022, while the number of chickens stood at 92.8 million.