Ginger farmers assured of reliable market

DAILY NEWS Reporters in Dodoma

Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Development, Mr William Ole NashaGINGER growers have been assured of a reliable market for their produce after the government succeeded to secure three potential buyers of the processed crop.

Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, William Ole Nasha, said in the House yesterday that there was huge domestic and international market for processed ginger.

He named the companies that have expressed readiness to buy the crop as Arfi- Tea of Dar es Salaam, Tausi (Arusha) and Lion Wattle (Lushoto).

He was responding to a question by Naghwenjwa Kaboyoka (Same East-Chadema) who sought to know whether the government had plans to help ginger growers process their produces and get good prices in the market.

Responding, Ole Nasha said the government had been supporting the association of ginger growers from Mamba Miamba in Same District to secure reliable markets for their produce through the Marketing Instructure, Value Addition and Rural Financing programme, which is conducted in collaboration with Faida Mali.

The Deputy Minister unveiled that the facing the Mamba Ginger Growers Cooperative Society a number of challenges including lack of knowledge on how to run the established ginger factory, lack of enough capital to purchase crude ginger and running costs.

He said all these challenges have contributed to poor performance of the ginger factory, that was launched in 2012 by former president Jakaya Kikwete and owned by Mamba Ginger Growers Cooperative Society