Posted on :Wednesday , 2nd March 2022

Tanzania is planning to build massive grain storage facilities and distribution centres in Mombasa to help market the country's surplus food supplies.

The projected big silos will make it easier for Kenya and Tanzania to trade surplus food supplies. The investment will boost bilateral trade, which was worth US$905.5 million in 2021.

Tanzania has high ambitions for grain storage facilities, as it currently has two grain storage facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

Tanzania will supply agricultural products directly to Kenya through the Mombasa grain centre. Presidents of Tanzania and Kenya, Samia Suluhu Hassan and Uhuru Kenyatta, have agreed to lower trade obstacles between the two nations, resulting in a more favourable trading climate.

Both the government and the commercial sector will use the grain storage facility.

Hussein Bashe, Kenya's Minister of Agriculture, confirmed Tanzania's desire to open a grain store in Mombasa, Kenya's coastal city island. Bashe went on to say that the ministry would not directly sell grain exports, but instead act as a catalyst.

"In an effort to allow Tanzanian farmers and traders to access decent markets for their products, we have created grain centres in Juba, South Sudan, and Lubumbashi, DRC, and have already transported 800 tonnes of wheat to the two centres," Bashe wrote. "We feel that having access to markets encourages farmers to enhance their output."

According to the Tanzania Cereals and Other Produce Board (CPB), grain outlets in Juba and Lubumbashi are already experiencing a brisk economic climate. The Mombasa facility was likewise predicted to outperform the other two.

Tanzania exported over 97,000 tonnes of maize, according to statistics. This paved the way for the government to partner with Tanzania's Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor to begin a grain surplus programme (SAGCOT).

SAGCOT was founded to reform Tanzania's agricultural sector into one that safeguards food security, increases environmental sustainability, and improves livelihoods. The World Bank, a major funder of SAGCOT, stated that its goal is to encourage the use of new advanced technology and improve smallholder farmers' marketing tactics. As a result, the agribusiness industry in Tanzania and smallholder farmers will expand and form partnerships.

Tanzania has recently reported a food surplus in its agricultural harvest. The East African country reported a food surplus of about 3.6 million metric tonnes in the fiscal year 2021/2022.

Due to the free movement of resources of production, trade between the two countries will grow exponentially as trade obstacles between the two countries are reduced.