Tanzania: Annual earnings from sisal exports increase by $1.8 m

Dar es Salaam. Earnings from sisal exports were up by $1.8 million in the year ending November 2018 amidst a fall of commodity prices in the world market.

According to the December monthly economic review by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), earnings from sisal exports were $30.3 million in the year ending November 2018, higher than $28.5 million in the corresponding period in 2017.

However, global price for one kilogramme of sisal fell by 2.4 per cent to $1.7 during the period under review. “Sisal prices fell as a result of moderate global demand amid higher global supply,” hinted the BoT report.

The declining prices trend started since April last year due to the decline in the global demand for the product. In 2014, sisal prices were growing at an average of 15 per cent annually.

The Tanzania Sisal Board reports show that production of sisal was 7.6 per cent higher to 6,525.0 tonnes in the third quarter of 2018 compared with 7,022.9 tonnes in the corresponding quarter of 2018.

Tanzania is the world’s second largest sisal producer behind Brazil, which produces an average of 120,000 tonnes annually against 35,000 for Tanzania. Following the earnings trend, the board seeks to increase production of sisal to 53,237 tonnes in the 2020/21 financial year from the current average of 34,589 tonnes per year. The popular export destinations are China, Saud Arabia, Spain, India, Egypt and Japan.

, Kenya, Nigeria, Libya and Morocco.