Tanzania cashes in as food crops grow in importance

Dar es Salaam. If you believe that growing rice, maize and other crops that have traditionally been grown for food would not make business sense, then you far off the mark.

While it is true that Tanzanians have traditionally grown rice, maize, sweet potatoes, bananas, beans and sorghum mostly for food, new developments point to the fact that if you grow enough to meet and surpass your food requirements, you might as well make money from the crops in such a way as you would earn by cultivating cash crops.

For instance, Tanzania exported a total of 475,744 tonnes of rice to Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Zambia, India, United Arab Emirates and Malawi among others last year, according to data obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Last year along, Tanzania earned a total of Sh476.29 billion by exporting a total of 441,908 tonnes of rice.

This was more than double from earnings worth Sh176.49 billion after the country exported 184,521 tonnes of the crop during the year 2020.

Similarly, data from the Ministry Agriculture - which were also highlighted during the budget speech of the Ministry during the just-concluded budget sessions of the Parliament - shows that Tanzanian farmers exported a total of 189,277 tonnes of maize worth Sh72.4 billion last year.

Again, that was a rise from 92,825 tonnes valued at Sh58 billion in 2020.

Traditionally, Tanzania’s traditional cash crops include cashew nuts, tobacco, coffee, tea, cotton, sisal and cloves. Paradoxically, with the global economy affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Tanzania earned a total of $627.9 million (about Sh1.444 trillion) from exporting all the seven traditional cash crops, according to Bank of Tanzania (BoT) figures.

This suggests that last year, the country earned much more from rice exports than it actually on several of its traditional cash crops, including sisal, tea, cotton and cloves among others.

This was why Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe told an Agriculture stakeholders’ meeting that was held recently in Dodoma that in an effort to boost exports, the focus was not only on cash crops. “I have told my colleagues at the ministry, we don’t separate food and cash crops, all are business,” he said, adding: “In fact, food crops are selling more than the cash crops. For instance, last year; we exported more rice than cashew nuts.”

In his speech while presenting his docket’s 2022/23 budget, Mr Bashe said: “World population is expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 whereas Tanzania is projected to have at least 100 million, such an increase, will instigate food demand to reach 3 billion tonnes, both for animal and human consumption,”

Therefore, Tanzania is set to produce more than enough food to feed for the country’s population as well as exporting the surplus.

The Ministry of Agriculture’s initial review for 2020/21 food production and 2021/22 food supply indicated that based on flow related to Self-Sufficiency Ratio (SSR) standards, Tanzania has been producing more than enough.

“For the past seven years, the country has continued to have food surplus, the ratio is between 120 and 126 percent, for the 2021/22, Tanzania expects to have more food equivalent to 125 percent ratio,” reads part of the report.

On the other hand, a study dubbed ‘Cash crops and food security Contributions to income, livelihood risk and agricultural innovation’ conducted by Research on Poverty Alleviation (Repoa), stressed that Tanzania should tap export potential derived from the highest demand for Tanzania’s rice.

The largest regional importers are Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, respectively.

Besides, Repoa study indicated that in 2020, the value of Tanzania’s total exported rice (including whole paddy, husked and milled rice) only to Uganda was $77 million, totalling to almost half of its world exported rice value.

Uganda was followed by Rwanda with nearly $35 million and Kenya with $27 million, and According to their rice imports, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Zambia followed, with significantly lower export quantity and value.

The largest overseas markets were India, with $1.46 million in export value, and Belgium, the United States of America, and Oman, with substantially lower figures.

Belgium taking the lead by importing only 25 tonnes of Tanzanian rice at a unit value of $0.8 million indicated that the country is currently not strong in the European market.

Based on the International Trade Centre (ITC) data, Tanzania has realized only 57 percent of its total export potential ($85.2 billion), while the actual export is $55.4 billion, with $36.5 billion unfulfilled

Other countries where Tanzania can export more rice include Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, and Hong Kong, with $1.4 million potential each, though these countries currently are not importers of Tanzanian rice. Outside Africa, Arabic countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman, deserve attention.

When reached for comment, Mr Bwisungo Chakutema, Managing Director for Mkulima Makini, an agri-business consulting organization in Shinyanga Region said: “The agri-food sector is the largest economic sector, so the demand for food makes farmers to reverse to produce more to satisfy it.”

Adding that: “The market is there, for instance, the East African market, Tanzania is in fact the basket for the bloc, let us use such opportunity by producing more as the government has created the necessity for which we can flourish.”