Tanexa to govt: Formulate export policy

By Felix Andrew

Tanzania Exporters Association (Tanexa)

The Tanzania Exporters Association (Tanexa) has called on the government to come up with an export policy that would enable them conduct their businesses more independently.

Speaking to this paper in an interview on Wednesday, the association Chairman, Isaac Dallushi, said lack of an export policy has hindered their development.

“We urge the government through Ministry of Industry and Trade to come up with an export policy that would enable us do our business more smoothly,” he said.

He said the current export strategy which was established in 1993 is outdated and needs major overhaul so that it can benefit all parties.

“Instead of insisting on export strategy, let us come up with complete export policy which would help transform the industry and its stakeholders,” he added.
Dallushi said, recently, the association convened a meeting and invited the Minister for Industry and Trade Dr Abdallah Kigoda whom they informed about various developments.

He said the meeting also passed an interim two year strategy 2013-2015 which would help fast track industry’s development.

Further, the meeting agreed to register the association under the Business Registration and Licensing Agency (Brela) instead of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“We started the process to register our association under Brela, the move will make us become more business oriented rather than ordinary organisation,” he stated.

Two years ago, the association conducted a study in different regions on problems encountered by exporters of agricultural goods.

According to the study, most exporters were not satisfied with the entire process of obtaining permits because it takes a long time and heavy cost.

Opening the workshop for Tanexa last year, the Chief Agricultural Officer from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Security and Cooperatives, Adah Mwasha, said the government is determined to take corrective measures to ensure that exporting within the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community is affordable and fast.

“The government is eager to increase exports so as to boost foreign exchange, so it is striving to take some corrective measures to ensure that exporting within the regions is affordable and fast,” she said.

She, however, said that export permits were issued basically to ensure food self-sufficiency for the people in the country and to protect domestic food processing industries so that exports were of value-added products.

Mwasha said the importance of issuing export permits could not be overemphasized as it was necessary to ensure that they were not prohibitive in the export process.

There have been several measures taken by the government to eliminate non-tariff barriers, such as efforts to improve the business environment and adopting EAC/SADC mechanism for reporting. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN