Mbeya city agro-processors working to increase horticultural product exports

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From Moses Mahundi in Mbeya
Mbeya city growers of horticultural products have invested great hope in steps taken by the Tanzania Food Processors Association of Women Entrepreneurs (TAFOPA) which is struggling to establish 50 micro-, small and medium industries in a five-acre plot offered by Mbeya regional authorities for the purpose.
“We are optimistic and doubling production for export.  The biggest obstacle was land, not money, not labour, not produce… but land on which to establish industries,” said excited Renatus Lembileki, a retired agronomist and a part-time grower of cabbages and avocado. “You can secure easily money from the bank or elsewhere to start very modern industrial plants in a short time. But without land, you will not get anywhere and this is what has been happening all these years,” he said.
Mr Lembileki said the COVID pandemic created “a yawning emptiness in east, central, southern African, European and American markets.  People out there want products, not rhetoric,” he fumed. 
TAFOPA, fully backed by the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), is busy establishing industries and cold rooms to process horticultural products for local and external markets in the secured plot.  A Swiss organization, HELVETAS, has thrown its weight behind the project.
Justin Fungo of Glosama Bakers said small entrepreneurs would gainfully use the area for local and external markets. “This project will lift us from current problems.  Many products decayed for lack of markets,” he said.
Francko Jackson of Jamii Kyela Products praised HELVETAS for supporting the project, saying post-harvests losses had been a problem that had defied solution. “Our products will now be on local and foreign markets because they will have been certified by authorities.”
Ms Syana Asalile said of Nuru Asili Farms said their products went bad for lack of facilities.  She welcomed the joint TPSF-HELVETAS solution by starting an industrial reserve is in Mbeya town that will have cold rooms and pro-export facilities.
Contacted for comment in Dar es Salaam, the TPSF Chairman, Ms Angelina Ngalula said they were keen on the project because, she said, other stakeholders in the project were equally enthusiastic and serious.
“We look forward to replicating this kind project in other regions.  That is our ambition, that is our hope,” she said but  could not name other prospective regions  for similar projects.
During the handing-over ceremony last week attended by Ms Ngalula, Mbeya Regional Commissioner Albert Chalamila, praised HELVETAS for supporting fruit and vegetable processors in Mbeya Region, especially members of Kibowavi Project.



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