Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Strong demand pushes up meat production

By DAILY NEWS Reporter
INCREASE in demand in the mining and tourism industries pushed up meat production to 648,810 tonnes in 2016 from 579,757 tonnes in the previous year.
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) 2016/17 annual report also attributed the increased meat production to the expansion of export markets mainly in Mozambique, Vietnam, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.


Similarly, there was a rise in milk production to 2,127.0 million litres in the year under review from 2,058.0 million litres in 2015. Livestock sub-activity grew by 2.6 per cent in 2016 compared with 2.4 per cent in 2015, due to increase in the number of livestock sold through registered markets following improvement made on markets infrastructure including renovation and installation of weighing scales in the auctions.
Fishing activity recorded a growth rate of 4.2 per cent in 2016 compared with 2.5 per cent in 2015, while forestry grew by 3.4 per cent compared with 2.6 per cent. The improvement recorded in 2016 was largely due to an increase in production of wood and wood products and other forestry products, including tourism hunting and honey harvesting and production of bees’ wax.
In the agriculture sector, the production of all major traditional export crops declined in the 2016/17 season due to unfavourable rains and low farm-gate prices, resulting into slower growth of agriculture activities by 2.1 per cent compared to 2.3 per cent in 2015. The Bank report also attributed the fall in export prices and inadequate farm inputs that contributed to the decline in production of traditional export crops.
“Save for cashew nuts whose production increased, coffee, tobacco, cotton, tea, and sisal declined in 2016/17,” stated the report. The increase in cashew nut production was mostly caused by better farm-gate prices, timely availability and application of agricultural inputs and favourable weather conditions.
Unfavourable rains also affected crop production and access to sufficient water to feed the livestock, with crops sub-activity mostly affected, recording annual growth of 1.4 per cent in 2016 compared with 2.2 per cent in 2015.
Production of food crops amounted to 15.9 million tonnes in the period under review compared with 16.1 million tonnes in 2015/16.
Cereals production was estimated at 9.4 million tonnes relative to 9.5 million tonnes a year earlier, while that of non-cereals was 6.5 million tonnes compared with 6.7 million tonnes. Food production in 2016/17 was more than the national food requirement by 19.6 per cent, though lower compared with preceding year.

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