Tanzania advised to bolster value addition to enable its products to win the Chinese market

DAR ES SALAAM: TANZANIA’S Ambassador to China, Dr Suleiman Haji Suleiman, has stressed the importance of value addition including packaging in ensuring domestic products penetrate effectively in China’s market.

In efforts of boosting Tanzania’s export to China, the envoy is participating at the ongoing 50th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) with the focus being informing Tanzanian traders necessary requirements for them to tap tremendous economic opportunities and the logistics channels.

The pavilion at the trade fair also provides participants with guidelines on obtaining trade permits.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the ‘Daily News’ recently during the DITF, Amb Suleiman called for concerted efforts from all players in manufacturing and trade in order to scale up value addition for local goods so as to unlock the booming markets in China and beyond for Tanzania’s products including avocados and fishery resources.

He said value addition which entails packaging of the products will enable local farmers and traders to set profitable prices in the international markets compared to now where raw products have been sold at low prices.

“For many years in our country we have had a tradition of exporting raw products, something which I believe made us sell at low prices. If you take today’s value added cashews  to China you will sell at a good price compared to the price of the raw cashew,” Amb Suleiman said.

Citing seaweed production in Zanzibar, he said farmers have been earning less income because of selling raw products at low price about 3000/- a kilo, below the international market which is over 30 US dollar (about 80000/-) a kilo for value seaweed.

“Value addition raises price,” Amb Suleiman said.

In that regard, he said the Embassy is participating at the ongoing trade fair to create awareness to traders and farmers so as to exploit fully economic opportunities in China.

“We are here to inform Tanzanians existing opportunities in China, right information about the markets and the existing trade initiatives including the zero-trade tariff to all Tanzanian goods,” Amb Suleiman said, insisting that this year the Embassy marks its first presence at the DITF with a pavilion demonstrating commitment to bridging the domestic traders with the Beijing market.

Adding “many people with goods have been visiting our pavilion but without knowledge on how to export to China through authorized logistics channels and permits,”

He said the Tanzanian products which are in high demand in China include avocado, coffee, tea, beans, honey,peppers,  wheat, cashew, rice, sesame, and seaweed which through enhanced value addition and packaging can boost farmers earnings and trade at large.

To accelerate value addition in the country, he said the Embassy is set to leverage the outstanding partnership with China to facilitate technological exchanges between the two countries through skill exchanges on value addition including packaging.

Amb Suleiman said the initiative will be achieved  as he plan after returning to China to explore training opportunities in renowned China packaging institutions to serve as centre for Tanzanian farmers and traders to learn the required skills

“We will request those packaging institutions at their consent to bring their experts to Tanzania or to host our farmers in China and train them, ” he said.

Furthermore, Amb Suleiman said the Embassy is considering connecting China’s training institutions in packaging with Vocational Education and Training Authority’s (VETA) instructors who will be trained in China and  later  pass their new skills in packaging  to local farmers and traders across the country to facilitate value addition.

Furthermore, he urged local traders to observe Visa requirements including avoiding overstaying inorder to run their businesses smoothly.

“There is a challenge for some traders, especially youth when their Visas expire they opt to become middlemen in China, risking facing legal challenges,”  Amb Suleiman said.

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He attributed the sky-rocketing business interactions  between Tanzania and China to direct flights of the Air Tanzania Company Limited’s (ATCL) aircraft from Dar es Salaam to  Guangzhou as well as pro-business policy of President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan and her China counterpart, Xi Jipin

In a related development, he said the Embassy at the trade fair highlights various education opportunities available in China for all Tanzanians youth indeed in strategic disciplines including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and medical degree programmes.

He said the Embassy’s pavilion at the DITF included other key collaborators such as Silent Ocean, a logistic firm,  education institutions and the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority (TISEZA).

TISEZA’s Acting Manager for Promotion of Domestic Investment, Mr Deusdedit Hukokoro said the collaboration with the Tanzania’s Embassy to China  enables local manufacturers to obtain useful information on where to buy modern production plants in China and sell locally manufactured goods.

He encouraged domestic investors to inject their capital in its Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Nala (Dodoma) as well as Kwala and Bagamoyo in the Coast Region where there is designated free project land for the manufacturers to build their industries.

Furthermore, Mr Hukokoro invited all investors to visit the TISEZA at its China and Karume Hall pavilions  to familiarize with investment guidelines at the SEZs and the tailored incetives.

“TISEZA is ready to support them step by step to invest in the SEZs. This is their opportunity,” he said.