Tanzania exports to Sadc rise
Dar es Salaam. The industrialisation drive, which is targeting to transform Tanzania to middle income country by 2025, has continued to bear fruit by cutting the country’s imports and increasing exports to other members of the South African Development Community (Sadc).
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) economic and operations annual report for the year 2017/18 ending June 2018 shows that Tanzania continued to be a net exporter to others, with a trade surplus of $445.5 million in 2017, up from $397.2 million in 2016.
This means that Tanzania will in future become the main source of products that have high demand in Sadc countries which include cement, cigarettes, ceramics, soap, fruit juices and wheat flour. The major exports to the Sadc region during the period were gold, cigarettes, wheat flour, juice, ceramic, fish, glass, cement, soap, footwear and bricks.
Specifically, the BoT report indicates that Tanzania recorded a trade surplus with South Africa, DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola and Botswana. The trade surplus is a result of decreased imports, mainly from South Africa.
Major Tanzania imports from Sadc, according to the report, were motor vehicles, maize seeds, gas, iron sheet, lubricants, beer, apples and sugar, of which most are originated from South Africa, Zambia, Mauritius and Malawi.
The report has revealed that South Africa remained the major trading partner of Tanzania accounting for 70.9 per cent of the total Tanzania’s intra-Sadc trade.
In 2017, Tanzania’s exports to South Africa increased by 10.7 per cent to $699.8 million from $631.3 million in 2016, while imports declined by 12.1 per cent to $415.2 million in 2017 from $472.2 million recorded in 2016.
DRC is Tanzania’s second intra-Sadc trade partner with export value amounting to $153.6 million in 2017, lower than $291 million in 2016. However, the share of Tanzania’s exports to DRC declined to 15.2 per cent in 2017 compared with 28.8 per cent in 2016.
Despite the growth of Tanzania’s trade surplus in 2017, the country’s regional intra-trade, decreased in 2017. The BoT report shows that the country’s total intra-Sadc trade declined by 3.5 per cent to $1,571.5 million in 2017 from $1,628.2 million in 2016 with Tanzania recording a trade deficit with Zambia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland, Seychelles and Lesotho due to low exports.
The Sadc national contact point at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Ms Agnes Richard Kayola, said she was not in the position to comment.
“We have just seen the report and we will have to look at it for analysis,” she said.
However, according to a report titled regional economic development in Sadc: taking stock and looking ahead, published by the regional secretariat in August last year, Sadc trade is low, standing at 25 per cent of potential due to a lack of industrialisation within the region
The low levels of intra-Sadc trade are said to be due to the lack of diversification of exports, which predominantly centre on minerals, fuels and agricultural produce.
SADC region with a combined population of 370 million people and a GDP of $607 billion provides huge potential for investment that could translate to socioeconomic development. The Sadc executive secretary, Dr Stergomena Tax, was quoted in the report saying Sadc is in the process of developing a Plan of Action that will lead to the establishment of a regional business council, which will strengthen Sadc’s private sector engagement.
