Chaula tells local producers, exporters to use barcodes
TANZANIAN producers and exporters have to use barcodes if they truly want their goods valued locally and especially abroad now and in the future.
Addressing a breakfast meeting of members of the business community hosted by the GS1 Tanzania here on Sunday, the Permanent Secretary in Community Development and Gender Ministry, Dr Zainabu Chaula, said goods put on the market without barcodes are considered to be highly suspected and more so at international level.
The origin of such goods, she explained, cannot be traced and consumers think, and rightly so, that they have been deceitfully put on the market. So far, some 30,000 products produced in Tanzania are known to have barcodes.
Dr Chaula equated goods put on the market without barcodes with nameless goods. “It is absolutely necessary for Tanzanian manufacturers and traders to acknowledge the fact that in the present world to produce and sell goods without barcodes is synonymous to selling goods that bear no names,” she told roughly 300 delegates.
She said President Samia Suluhu Hassan has taken numerous steps to ensure the private sector does not only grow, but faces no challenges and problems.
However, she explained, non-use of barcodes only serves to undermine good intentions and good efforts made by the sixth phase government.
She commended efforts made by GS1 Tanzania in helping manufacturers and traders, saying those efforts have reduced stress on producers and traders in exporting goods and in making business inclusive and friendly.
Kinondoni District Commissioner Saadi Ahmed Mtambule, who represented the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner, Mr Amos Makalla commended GS1 Tanzania for organising the meeting saying it was the best platform entrepreneurs to learn.
He said ‘GS1 Tanzania beyond barcodes’ was a good slogan and he would promote use of barcodes in his district among producers and traders so as to add value of their products.
DC Mtambule also inaugurated GS1 Tanzania’s song that promotes private sector in Tanzania and efforts being taken by President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan and her government to support the sector’s growth and development.
The Chairman of GS1 Tanzania Board of Directors, Mr Jumbe Menye, told the meeting that over 30,000 products made in Tanzania have barcodes and that Tanzania is now internationally identified using number 620. He explained that barcodes serve to show the genuine origin of the products.
GS1 Tanzania Chief Executive Officer Fatma Kange told the gathering that their institution has been using digital methods to explain to producers and traders the importance of barcodes. But, she said a lot more education on the issue is still needed to achieve the national goal. She appealed for support from the private and public sector to be able to achieve that goal.
