Slash fees, exhibitors counsel TanTrade

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Trade Development Agency (TanTrade) has been accused of making money instead of creating a good environment for exhibitors to promote products.

“Exhibitions are losing fame due to high participation fees. It’s sad that TanTrade is busy making money instead of promoting business,” lamented MeTL detergents sales coordinator Erick Kirangi. “We paid Sh54 million for our pavilion.

That’s a huge amount of money.”

He also said the entry fee of Sh3, 000 was inordinately high.

High participation costs create the impression that the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) is for big companies, keeping small-scale businesses at bay, according to him.

He calls on TanTrade to lower fees in the future and allow exhibitors to sell products during fairs.

“We got inquiries but not concluding many deals as opposed to our expectation.”

Until last week, deals worth Sh7.8 million were made with four customers from Mbeya, Mwanza, Bukoba and Morogoro.

But only one deal, with a customer from Mwanza, was concluded.

During the same period last year, 25 deals worth Sh12 million were concluded.

Visitors to the16-day fair said high prices out them off. “There are no much differences between prices in shops and those at DITF. For example, bedsheets are sold at Sh50,000, the same amount you can buy them elsewhere,” said Ms Rehema Abel told BusinessWeek.

Some visitors were unhappy that the same products found elsewhere were on display in DITF pavilions. “Many exhibitors are not innovative,” said one of them. Exhibitors attribute high prices to transport, operational and stall costs.

The 41st DITF attracted more than 2,500 participants from 30 countries.

Although the exhibition concept is to showcase products to make networking and attract orders and not simply selling them in retail, this has not been always the case at DITF.

“We have no option but to sell our products to recover some operational costs,” Alaf Limited official Jacqueline Karia told BusinessWeek.

She proposed that participation costs be cut for exhibitors to stick to product showcasing and not selling.

Exhibitors pay Sh50,000 per square metre, according to her.

“Always, visitors attend exhibitions to buy products at discounted prices. We don’t let them down as we also need money; we offer them discounts of 5-15 per cent.”

The pavilion of the Bakhresa Group of Companies attracted a large number of customers, according to its sales and marketing manager Omary Kuwe.

“Although we are yet to record sales, we have been entering a lot of deals in fair. The types of customers we targeted are flocking here, window shopping and buying of products.”

Some visitors have advised TanTrade to attract exhibitors from more countries in the future.

However, TanTrade acting director general Edwin Rutageruka told The Citizen that the fair was well organised, well attended and participation costs were reasonable.