Tanzania plans to end sugar, edible oil imports by 2025

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | Xinhua | The government of Tanzania on Monday announced plans aimed at ending sugar and edible oil imports by 2025.

The plans were announced by the Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, and the Minister for Investment, Industry and Trade, Ashatu Kijaji, when they addressed parliament in the capital Dodoma.

Bashe said short-term measures to end edible oil imports in the next three years included the distribution of subsidized certified sunflower seeds to small-scale growers.

Long-term measures, added Bashe, included the introduction of tax incentives to large-scale investors in oil palm estates.

The short-term plan on edible oil intervention has started with the distribution of the initial 3,000 tons of certified sunflower seeds to smallholder farmers, he told the House.

Bashe said the government has already allocated 10,000 hectares to one oil palm investor in Kigoma region in western Tanzania.

For her part, Kijaji said the government is making efforts to create an enabling environment for investments in the sugar and edible oil cultivation and processing industries.

Kijaji said sugar milling is one of the top investments in the industrial parks being created in various parts of the country.

Tanzania’s annual consumption of edible oil is 650,000 tons but the local production capacity is 290,000 tons annually, according to official statistics.

The country’s demand for domestic sugar is 470,000 tons annually while the current total production of sugar is 378,000 tons.

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Xinhua