Are we nostalgic about Gapex?

Nostalgia’ describes a sentimental longing or wistful affection for (something in) the past; a return to some irrecoverable past condition...

Could it then be correct to say that the brouhaha brewing in Tanzania’s cashews trade has triggered nostalgia for the way agricultural exports were handled under the ‘Arusha Declaration?’

Proclaimed on February 5, 1967 by the President Julius ‘Mwalimu’ Nyerere Government (1962-85), the ‘Arusha Declaration and TANU Policy on Socialism and Self-Reliance’ sought to build ‘African Socialism’ under the ‘party of Independence,’ Tanganyika African National Union (TANU).

This required putting the ‘Commanding Heights of the Economy’ under state control and direction.

It also entailed nationalization of private entities like banks, insurance, manufactories, etc., and establishing new parastatal industries, economic infrastructures, and trading institutions like GAPEX.

In due course, Tanzania became home to more than 400 parastatals in the next quarter-century or so post-the Arusha Declaration, ranging from industries to wholesale and retail merchanting entities.

One of the merchanting parastatals was the General Agricultural Products Export Corporation (GAPEX) which dealt in agricultural exports, mostly in the raw. A reader of my columns recently emailed me, wanting to know my views on reviving GAPEX to help sort out the ongoing brouhaha in the cashew nuts business.

Boy...!

Up until the 2016/2017 harvest season, the cashew trade had for all practical purposes been in private hands, and it seems that things were hunky-dory – what with Tanzania becoming Africa’s third-largest cashews producer behind Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

In fact, cashew export earnings in the year to October 2018 earned Tanzania $575.6m, surpassing the combined export earnings of six other crops: coffee, tea, sisal cotton, tobacco and cloves: $537.5 million! [See ‘Tanzania earns Sh1.3tr from cashews,’ The Citizen: December 20, 2018].

Then things went haywire, what with dealers suddenly offering inordinately low prices for the crop – and farmers refusing to sell their stocks.

That was when – much like the legendary savior appearing on the horizon riding a richly-caparisoned white stallion – President John Magufuli smartly stepped into the breach.

He by fiat declared the price of a kilo of cashew nuts at Sh3,300 – and directed the military to oversee transactions every which way.

Those who have been following the cashew nuts business since then would have gone through a kaleidoscope of constantly changing scenarios involving facts, figures, graft allegations, crosscurrents, mismatches, obfuscations and other discombobulating shenanigans...

... So much so that we wonder if this would have been happening had GAPEX been at the centre of things, instead of the nation’s Cashewnut Board and/or the Cereals and Other Produce Board, around whom smart-alecky ‘Kangombas’ are running rings!

As my reader emailed: “... after adopting neo-capitalism (read ‘privatization programme after Tanzania virtually trashed the Arusha Declaration in 1991’), we found it logical that the govt. confines itself to regulatory issues, and leaves the private sector to do business. However, it’s now evident that the government has made a dramatic U-turn, returning to doing business as it was doing in the past...

“Just recently, it decided to buy all cashew nuts for export. Should this prove successful, we shouldn’t be surprised that a Bill to revive the defunct GAPEX is sent to Parliament...”

Well...? Well; I don’t know. Cheers!