Chalamila urges FCC to extend services to Lake Victoria islands

KAGERA Regional Commissioner (RC) Mr Albert Chalamila has appealed to the Fair Competition Commission (FCC), to extend services to the Lake Victoria islands, following reports of increasing counterfeits.

Equally, he tasked District Executive Directors (DEDs) to prepare a database of Economic Empowerment Groups (EEG) in their respective areas, in efforts to boost their economic undertakings.

Mr Chalamila issued the directives yesterday, while opening a one-day sensitisation seminar that was organised by the Fair Competition Commission (FCC).

The seminar was attended by representatives from Agricultural and Marketing Cooperative Societies (AMCOS) under the Kagera Cooperative Union (KCU) and Karagwe District Cooperative Union (KDCU).

Due to its geographical location Kagera Region has been witnessing an increase of counterfeits especially from neighbouring countries.

He said it is high time the FCC extends its services to the Lake Victoria islands to curb the problem.

Mr Chalamila commended FCC for the decision to impart education to the coffee stakeholders, taking into consideration the importance of the cash crop.

He tasked the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB), to educate Tanzanians on the importance of drinking home-grown coffee, adding that there was need to rescue local companies engaged in coffee production including the ailing Tanganyika Instant Coffee Company (Tanica).

TCB  Regional Manager, Mr Edmond Zani informed the RC that  within the past two months,  over 35,000 tonnes of coffee was sold through on-line auctions enabling the farmers to pocket over 79.4bn/-.

During his recent tour in Kagera, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa welcomed private companies to compete and buy the coffee at auctions held at the AMCOS level, instead of relying on the outdated system, whereby cooperative unions collected the coffee and ended up paying low price to the farmers.

He invited private companies to buy coffee directly from AMCOS, a move aimed to offer higher price to the farmers.

Coffee is grown in Bukoba, Muleba, Karagwe, Kyerwa, Ngara and Missenyi districts in the western areas along Lake Victoria.  This constitutes about 50 per cent of the total coffee production in Tanzania.