Company rolls out door-to-door services for food

Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam is the commercial capital of Tanzania, with an estimated population of about six million.

This population has to be fed to remain productive.

However, buying groceries in a city like Dar es Salaam can sometimes become a nightmare given the type of hassle that you one has to go through..

In most cases one has to dedicate a whole day to do his or her shopping because not everything is available at a one stop centre to save time.

It gets worse during the rainy season as in some of the markets infrastructure is poor and the threat of communicable diseases is high.

Nikuze Food Products is set to launch a new service in Dar es Salaam this month to make grocery shopping as easy as possible. Nikuze Food Products managing director James Kuyangana told BusinessWeek that the company was set to make a door-to-door delivery of vegetables, fruits and other food items within Dar es Salaam.

“Our services are tailored to each customer’s requirements and we only count our services as satisfactory after the customer is satisfied,” he says.

The pilot scheme has proved successful with the company having been serving three five-star hotels in Dar es Salaam for the past four years.

“The experience that we have attained at that level tells us that we are ready to roll out this project to the rest of the city to save especially the working population of the hassle of running around the city,” he says.

“We guarantee to supply the same type and quality of groceries at competitive prices to save them the hassle of price fluctuations that is the norm at many outlets in the city.”

The question is how to guarantee the availability of produce throughout the year given the fact that some of the crops are seasonal.

According to Mr Kuyangana, the company has signed supply agreements with several farmers across the country who will supply the produce throughout the year even during the low season when items such green vegetables tend to become scarce.

“Tanzania is such a diverse country gifted with different types of climatic conditions in different areas therefore there is no way that the whole country can lack the products that are listed on our catalogue,” says Kuyangana.

Armed with a modern food shop and storage facilities in Kinondoni, the company also has its own gardens.

“With our well-trained personnel who work round the clock, we are now ready to give Dar es Salaam its first reliable grocery shopping with a turnaround period that is unbeatable,” he says.

According to him, from the time a customer completes the order form which is available online, at nikuze.com, it should take between 30 minutes and one hour for the delivery to be made at the customer’s door step.

In an increasingly environmentally conscious population the company takes into consideration the type of packaging materials as well.

“We have made it a policy that we are going to use the packaging materials that will not ruin our environment; instead we shall opt for environmental-friendly bags to deliver our products.”