The Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) last month secured a market in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for thousands of tonnes of maize harvest from Rukwa Region.
This comes as a relief for Rukwa business community as it is unlikely for the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to purchase surplus maize from the region this season.
This year NFRA has allocated funds for only 35,000 tonnes, which Rukwa Regional Commissioner Eng Stella Manyanya said is much less than what the region’s farmers have in stock.
“A delegation of businessmen lead by the TCCIA leaders went to the DRC in search for a crop market and were successful in their mission in Lubumbashi and Katanga,” said Manyanya.
TCCIA is a government agency of Tanzania with a mandate to promote business and industry, and to facilitate an interface between the private sector and public sector in the country.
Manyanya said the business community by TCCIA Rukwa Region Chairperson Sadrack Mmalila, and his deputy Dr Chrisant Mzindakaya, agreed with the Governor of Lubumbashi on various issues, among them improvement of infrastructure.
“They talked of the possibility of improving roads and retaining ships in Lake Tanganyika to ease transportation of goods to the DRC, and also roads,” the RC said.
She told The Guardian that the DRC, and especially Lubumbashi, is eager to do business with Tanzania.
“Apart from wanting to purchase food crops, they say they lack raw materials for processing in their factories…want to buy unprocessed food crops. But also others want to buy flour from Rukwa mills,” she explained.
NFRA has up to 47,000 tonnes of maize surplus stock that had not been purchased, the RC said, adding that for paddy there are about 10,000 tonnes.
She revealed that the amount in the warehouses is just a small part of what is being stored locally.
“There are people in the villages who cannot find a market, neither are they able to have chance to store it with the NFRA for lack of space.”
The longer they store the produce the lower the prices become because of anticipated good harvest season,” she explained, adding that the region could harvest as much twicw this season.
In the same period last yeas the RC promised the farmers that the Sumbawanga branch of NFRA would buy a kilo of maize at Sh500, which is competitive during maize purchase season.
However, the authority failed to compete with private buyers who hiked the price, at times more than Sh500 per kilo as middlemen bought directly from farmers, while NFRA offered just between Sh350 and Sh380.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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