TANTRADE Director General, Mr Edwin Rutageruka
TANZANIA Trade Development Authority (TANTRADE) has called on stakeholders and growers of spices to specify challenges facing the sector in a bid to strengthen and expand the business.
TANTRADE Director General, Mr Edwin
Rutageruka said there are needs for stakeholders to bring solutions to
address the sector’s bottlenecks that backpedal its flourishing. “The
spices sector is growing fast given the increase in demand, therefore it
is crucial for stakeholders to discuss better ways of dealing with
them,” he said.
The newly appointed DG said this over
the weekend when launching a meeting that brought together a number of
spices’ stakeholders to discuss the sector’s challenges in production
and tackling them.
He pointed out that demand for spices
was on rise following its various uses in food, ingredients, cosmetics
and medicine, thus the need for increased production. “Our country is
blessed with various climatic conditions suitable for the growth of
various spices including cloves, vanilla and ginger among others,” he
said.
Mr Rutageruka added that the major
challenge is perception that spices was not an agribusiness crop leading
to a low production. Statistics in 2015/16 showed that clove production
clocked 3,500 tonnes, millet pepper 3,000 tonnes and ginger was at
7,000 tonnes.
The country production is on low side
compared to the European demand standing at 750,000 tonnes per year.
“Apart from international demand, the local demand of spices is huge.
Its demand is vividly seen through the availability of many processing
industries like Podravka Ltd,” he said.
He said Podravka production stands at
2.5 tonnes per day which is 50 per cent less compared to its capacity
[hence] forcing the factory to import the rest. To increase the
availability of raw material, the factory opened the door for local
spices growers to supply some 17 spices needed—since the demand is still
on the higher side.
The Chairman of Tanzania Spices
Association (TASPA), Ms Neema Matinde said spice growers are facing poor
market system as there are no read available statistics. She said the
meeting was crucial since the sector faces a number of challenges from
production to marketing and value addition.
The way forward is education on quality,
production, value addition and marketing. Ms Matinde said the meeting
was timely arranged by TANTRADE hence would open up the sector to
investors.
A farmer from Tanga, Mr Juma Mbwambo said the sector is important but growers failed to meet the market demand
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