TAHA hails state for prioritising horticulture

DODOMA: THE Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA) has lauded the government for prioritising a burgeoning industry, as a key pillar within the nation’s agricultural agenda.

Through the agricultural budget 2025/2026, tabled by the Ministry of Agriculture and approved by the National assembly, horticulture took centre stage as a strategic industry in reeling in foreign currencies.

TAHA, a pivotal entity driving horticultural industry advancement and sustainability, also reaffirmed its dedication to collaborating with governmental bodies in realising the national objective.

“With a focus on building critical common use facilities to promote market access, TAHA’s commitment highlights a shared vision to elevate Tanzania’s horticulture to greater heights, ensuring robust development that meets both local needs and global standards” said TAHA’s CEO Dr Jacqueline Mkindi.

Commenting on the recent approved agricultural budget, Dr Mkindi showered praises to Minister Hussein Bashe for recognising horticultural industry as a growth driver of the agriculture sector in terms of overall agrarian export value.

Mr Bashe told the House that the ministry has set ten key strategic goals including increasing the productivity and production of agricultural crops, as well as horticultural products.

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Additionally, there will be efforts to reduce the import bill on edible oils, wheat and other grains.

The ministry aims to reduce post-harvest loss from the current 30 to 40 per cent to five per cent by the year 2030. Other goals include reducing poverty by 50 per cent by 2030 and ensuring that industrial raw materials are 100 per cent domestically available.

The ministry also plans to create 3,000,000 new jobs for youth and women by 2030. There is a plan to increase the value of agricultural exports from 1.2 billion US dollars to 5 billion US dollars by 2030, with the horticultural industry alone apportioned to bring in 2 billion US dollars annually. The production of horticultural crops in Tanzania has experienced notable growth.

From the year 2020/2021 to 2023/2024, the total production rose from 7,304,723 tonnes to 7,513,026.83 tonnes, marking an increase of 2.85 per cent.

A standout performer within this sub-sector is the avocado butter fruit. In the 2022/2023 season, avocado production reached 149,340 tonnes, which is anticipated to increase to 195,162 tonnes by 2024/2025.

This surge is mirrored by a significant boost in export figures. Avocado exports grew from 26,826 tonnes valued at 117.5bn/- in 2022/2023 to an expected 35,627.02 tonnes worth 252.3bn/- in 2023/2024. Such strides have positioned Tanzania as the third-largest avocado producer on the African continent.

Equally impressive is the performance in oilseed production. Between 2020/2021 and 2023/2024, production of oilseed crops escalated from 1,713,178 tonnes to 2,143,098.70 tonnes, reflecting a growth of 25.1 per cent.

He said that the ministry, through the Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticides Authority (TPHPA), is collaborating with stakeholders, including TAHA to open new markets for nine agricultural products mostly horticultural crops in 14 countries.

These efforts aim to further expand the reach of Tanzanian exports and enhance the livelihoods of local farmers.

The targeted countries and corresponding products are China and India (for vanilla and pineapple), Indonesia and Singapore (cloves), Israel and Malaysia (avocado), Canada (black pepper), Turkey and Brazil (pineapple), USA (cocoa), South Africa (bananas), Zambia (potatoes) and Pakistan and Iraq (tobacco).

The minister assured that once these procedures are finalised, they will significantly broaden the export market, thus stimulating increased income for Tanzanian farmers and support economic growth.

Mr Bashe told the National Assembly that the ministry has partnered with TAHA to operate the Nundu horticultural packing and storage centre located in the Yakobi Ward, Njombe urban Council in Njombe Region.

The minister commended TAHA for securing an investor, Avocado Avenue Tanzania Ltd, which has established a state-ofthe-art state plant for packing and extracting avocado oil.

TAHA has rolled out five state-of-the-art collection centres in the Southern Highlands, promising to spur the avocado industry and uplift thousands of farmers.

Strategically positioned in Njombe, the hubs, each capable of handling 20 to 50 metric tonnes of avocados daily, signify a game-changer for over 2,000 farmers across the Southern highlands regions.

Supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), TradeMark Africa (TMA) and AGRA, the project is part of TAHA’s broader vision to modernise the industry through infrastructure development and value chain integration.