Dar firm purchases hippo teeth

Dar es Salaam. A Dar es Salaam-based hunting company, Ontour Tanzania Ltd, yesterday bought 12,467 pieces of hippopotamus teeth weighing 3.58 tonnes in a public auction.

The company paid a total of Sh30.9 million for the teeth at the auction that took place at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism offices.

A total of 19 companies tendered their bids.

The auction, which was chaired by Ms Karerema Kwareh from the Ministry of Finance and Planning, was a result of adverts, which appeared in several newspapers recently.

She said the teeth were sold as a single lot whereby each piece weighed 0.3 kilogram, adding that the winner was supposed to pay 25 per cent of the money in cash.

The winning company’s managing director, Mr Grey Kilasi said after the inspection, he found that 40 per cent of the teeth were not of the required quality, adding that he had decided to buy because there were six months of analysing the market before exporting.

“The last auction was held in 2004 and the cost was $25 per piece, I do not know the current price, but I have more time to search for the market,” he said.

Mr Kilasi added that the main markets would be Japan and China where they are used to make buttons and decorations.

For his part, the Acting Director of Wildlife Protection Services from ministry, Mr Mabula Misungwi said the turn up was encouraging and ensured the public that selling hippo teeth would not spark a rise in poaching of hippos.

He said the pieces of teeth were collected from 2004 due to natural deaths and poaching.

According to statistics from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), since the trade began in 1975, over 770,000kg of hippo teeth have been traded internationally.

And, it is estimated that over 75 per cent came from two East African countries: Tanzania and Uganda.