Dar es Salaam. The value of clove exports more than doubled to $40.6 million as prices of the produce increased in the world market.
Clove is a key export cash crop in Zanzibar which also generates foreign earnings through tourism activities.
Service receipts have been affected by the Covid-19 that has disrupted many economic activities around the world.
According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), the value of exports of cloves increased to $40.6 million in the year ending September 2021, from $17.6 million recorded during a similar period in 2020.
The development was attributed to increased export volumes of cloves as well as price improvement, according to the central bank’s Monthly Economic Review (MER) for October. Volume of exported cloves rose to 5,500 tonnes from 3,700 tonnes, while the price per tonne increased to $7,421.7 in September this year from $4,784.2 per tonne last year.
For seaweed, exports amounted to 11,000 tonnes worth $13.19 million this year against 15,800 tonnes valued at $5.29 million in the year ending September 2020.
The improved earning was a result of the good prices that a tonne of seaweed fetched at $1,204.5 which is higher than $334.9 per tonne as recorded a year ago.
Fish and fish products also showed a significant increase to $1.89 million from $1.17 million.
“Thus, total exports of goods and services was $149.2 million compared with $215.7 million in the year ending September 2020, driven by decline in service receipts, particularly from tourism,” the central bank stated in part.
Moreover, BoT reported that the surge in imports of capital and intermediate goods pushed Zanzibar’s total imports of goods and services to $439.1 million in the year ending September 2021 up from $415.1 million in the corresponding period in 2020.
“Majority of imports in September 2021 comprised of building and construction, oil and industrial raw materials, which altogether accounted for 61.9 percent compared to 43.8 percent in September 2020,” the BoT report says.
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