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Feature: Moves to woo Tanzanians into wider East African market

Xinhua, April 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Reuben Mapunda is a farmer in Tanzania's northern region of Manyara.

He owns 30 acres of maize farm in Simanjiro district, harvests an average of 500 bags of maize per season, and sells them in the form of flour.

However he doesn't know whether he could gain more profit as now he relies on the small Tanzanian market.

Like Mapunda, many Tanzanian farmers are unaware whether they could sell their agro-produce to the population of more than 160 million people in the East African Community (EAC) countries.

The EAC is made up of six East African nations, namely Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

"I am not aware of the East African market. Is it open to small farmers like me?" queries the 46-year-old man.

There are many Tanzanian farmers who grow maize and other crops more than what Mapunda do, but look for larger market during harvesting season.

"This is a challenge. EAC partner states themselves haven't empowered people at the grassroots levels on the opportunities available in the trading bloc," says Josiah Sadock, a Tananian cereal crop businessman, who also does business in neighbouring Kenya.

Makongoro Nyerere is the chairman of Tanzania Chapter in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), who is also aware of the challenge.

He is now leading a team of regional parliamentarians to carry out a countrywide sensitization to woo Tanzanians to tap the existing opportunities in the trading bloc.

The EALA member says time has come for Tanzanians to make use of these openings.

"In this campaign, we are going to touch in almost every sector from small-scale farmers, traders to large scale. Other areas will be higher learning institutions, media outlets, the Tanzania's National Assembly as well as marketplaces and other public areas," he said.

According to Makongoro, the campaign has already started in the city of Dar es Salaam and will be continuous as "changing people's mindsets need time."

"Our mission is to ensure that Tanzanians are in the forefront of exploring opportunities brought about by the EAC integration," says Shy-Rose Bhanji, another EALA member.

"With the advance of technology, such information could just be obtained on mobile phones," she added.

According to her, the trading bloc offers job opportunities and markets to locally produced goods since such products are not taxed when sold within the EAC.

Bhanji says Tanzanian farmers are "in the best position" to sell their produce to member states of the EAC that need food imports. "So they should produce more and the EAC market is waiting for them." Endit