US traders arrive to lobby govt

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

• Reliable sources in the ministry of Livestock Development said the American businessmen arrived on Tuesday on a mission to convince the government to lift its ban on cheap imported chicken from Brazil

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.