TZ farmers suffer losses as maize prices drop

THE MOVE by Tanzania to ban maize exports to the region has left farmers and crop traders nursing huge losses as the domestic price of the commodity tumbles.

Farmers are receiving much less for their harvest compared with what they were fetching from the foreign market before the ban mid last year.

Traders said they have lost a lucrative foreign market as well as investments and contacts as Tanzania moved to rein in on illegal cross-border-trade. Tanzanian police estimates that before the ban, nearly 400 metric tonnes of maize were smuggled on a daily basis through Mara, Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions to Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Regional prices

The prices of maize in the country have dropped from $28.40 to $18.93 per 100 Kg Bag over the past six months but across borders, buyers are asking for as much as $37.8788 — twice as much.

“The government is not fair to us farmers because we do not have a voice on how we want to sell our produces. The maize prices remained relatively low on the domestic market, whereas in the EA countries the prices were fairly high, but the ban denied us the opportunity to benefit from some of the best maize prices in region” said Paul Sarwatt, a farmer from Gedamar village in Manyara Region.

Available data indicates that the export ban affected more than 800,000 tonnes of maize, valued at $304 million which were to be exported to Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda. As of last week, data from Dodoma, Morogoro and Ruvuma showed that there were 75,000 tonnes of maize worth $1.42 million at local price in stores as farmers and traders failed to get ready market.

The same applies to Morogoro and Ruvuma regions where a total of 60,000 tonnes of maize were still in various stores due to a lack of market.

Ruvuma Regional Commissioner, Said Mwambungu, said that they are negotiating with the World Food Programme to procure 40,000 tonnes stock of maize.

In Morogoro, the Managing Director of Rural and Urban Development Initiative organization, Abel Lyimo says there were nearly 20,000 tonnes of maize, rotting in Morogoro warehouses due to plummeted prices.