Should the chicken imports be allowed, small-scale poultry farming might
collapse. Hundreds of thousands of poultry farmers in Dar es Salaam and
those from upcountry, who rear mostly exotic breeds, are at risk of
being pushed out of business. PHOTO/FILE
By The Citizen Reporter
In Summary
Dar es Salaam. A delegation of businessmen from
the US is here to lobby the government, through the ministry of
Livestock Development and Fisheries, to let them import cheap chicken
bred in Brazil, The Citizen has learnt.
Reliable sources in the ministry, who declined to
be named, said the businessmen arrived on Tuesday on a mission to
convince the government to lift a ban on cheap imported chicken from the
South American country.
“As of Thursday, the US businessmen were scheduled
to meet the minister to try and convince him to lift the ban,” our
source said on the phone. “These people are serious and they want to
take the local market at all costs.”
Early this year, The Citizen reported that
repacked cartons of frozen chicken and turkey thigh cubes and wings
imported from Brazil and the US had flooded the local market and posed a
serious threat to local poultry farmers.
The cartons weighing between 800gm and 1,000gm each did not indicate the date of manufacture or expiry.
Should the chicken imports be allowed, small-scale
poultry farming might collapse. Hundreds of thousands of poultry
farmers in Dar es Salaam and those from upcountry, who rear mostly
exotic breeds, are at risk of being pushed out of business.
The central regions of Singida and Dodoma are a
primary source of native chicken that feeds big cities such as Dar es
Salaam, Arusha and Mwanza.
The minister for Livestock Development and
Fisheries and his deputy were unavailable for comment. But the minister
for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Mr Christopher Chiza,
told The Citizen his ministry had no information on the matter which, he
added, falls under the Livestock Development and Fisheries docket held
by Dr Titus Kamani.
Tanzania has imposed a ban on imported chicken in
order to protect local poultry industry but importers have been using
Zanzibar as a conduit to penetrate the Mainland market.
Our source at the ministry further said: “These
are very powerful people who are also backed by some prominent local
politicians…it’s sad that we allow the importation of frozen chicken
from Brazil and America at the expense of local chicken farmers.”
The imports come at great cost to local farmers,
who risk losing their income and may also have to lay off workers. Some
experts also worry that such poultry products could expose the country
to diseases that would be hard to handle.
Poultry farmers in urban areas are most affected
because they rear exotic chicken, which puts them in direct competition
with producers in North and South America. Earlier this year, Zanzibar
farmers closed shop in the wake of massive and cheap chicken imports.
Poultry farmers in the Isles said they could not compete with chicken
imports, especially from the US and Brazil, given their incredibly low
prices. The chairman of the Tanzania Commercial Poultry Association, Dr
Herman Moshi, has repeatedly appealed to the government to enforce its
ban on imported chicken.
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