Cloves, tourism lift Zanzibar exports 23pc

ZANZIBAR: ZANZIBAR’S exports of goods and services rose by 23 per cent in the year through May 2026, driven by a sharp rebound in clove shipments and continued tourism growth. The gains strengthened the islands’ key foreign-exchange sources despite weakness in non-traditional exports.

Total export earnings reached 1.64 billion US dollars, according to the latest Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Monthly Economic Review, with services accounting for 96 per cent of the total.

Tourism remained the dominant source of services receipts after international visitor arrivals increased 21 per cent to 947,169 during the year.

The performance highlights the growing importance of tourism to Zanzibar’s external sector, while also showing a renewed contribution from traditional agricultural exports following a strong recovery in clove earnings.

Receipts from cloves, Zanzibar’s flagship cash crop, surged more than twelvefold to 41.5 million US dollars from 3.3 million US dollars a year earlier, supported by higher export volumes and stronger international prices.

Clove export volumes rose to 6,400 tonnes in the year ending May 2026 from 700 tonnes a year earlier, while the average export price increased 36.2 per cent to 6,515.5 US dollars per tonne, according to BoT calculations based on Tanzania Revenue Authority data.

The increase in clove earnings helped offset declines across most non-traditional export categories.

Seaweed export earnings, one of Zanzibar’s traditional foreign-exchange earners outside cloves, declined 52.5 per cent to 1.63 million US dollars.

Manufactured goods exports fell 28.4 per cent to 10.9 million US dollars, while receipts from fish and fish products dropped by 45.7 per cent to 752,700 US dollars.

Exports classified as “other products” provided some support, rising 24.1 per cent to 12.5 million US dollars, although the growth was not enough to reverse the broader decline in non-traditional exports.

On a monthly basis, exports of goods and services rose to 71.4 million US dollars in April 2026 from 63.1 million US dollars in the corresponding month of 2025, indicating continued external demand momentum heading into the second quarter.

The latest figures show an export sector increasingly supported by tourism and cloves, with the two sectors compensating for persistent weakness in other export industries.

Meanwhile, stronger export earnings coincided with higher imports, reflecting increased investment and consumer demand across the economy.

Imports of goods and services climbed 24 per cent to 785.2 million US dollars in the year ending May 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the Bank of Tanzania.

The increase was driven mainly by higher goods imports, particularly capital equipment and consumer products.

Capital goods imports more than doubled during the period, supported by increased purchases of industrial transport equipment as well as electrical machinery and equipment, signalling continued investment in productive sectors of the economy.

Consumer goods imports also increased, largely due to higher purchases of nonindustrial transport equipment and other consumer products, pointing to resilient domestic demand.

ALSO READ: Research institute pushes farmers toward modern high-yield crops for prosperity

On a monthly basis, imports of goods and services edged up to 52.7 million US dollars in May 2026 from 52.1 million US dollars in the same month last year.

Taken together, the figures point to stronger trade activity, with tourism, clove exports and rising capital goods imports supporting foreignexchange earnings and investment.