Earnings from sisal go down as prices in world market fall
A sisal farm in Tanga. Tanzania is the second largest producer of sisal in the world behind Brazil. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
According to monthly economic review for July by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), the global price for one kilogramme of sisal fell by 1.1 per cent to $1.7 during the year that ended in June 2018 from $1.8 recorded in the corresponding month if 2016.
Dar es Salaam. Earnings from export of sisal has gone down following shrinking of the cash crop price in at the world market, a report shows.
According to monthly economic review for July by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), the global price for one kilogramme of sisal fell by 1.1 per cent to $1.7 during the year that ended in June 2018 from $1.8 recorded in the corresponding month if 2016.
The decline started in April this year due to the fall in the global demand for the product.
Two years prior to 2016, the sisal price was growing at an average of 15 per cent annually.
Tanzania is the second largest sisal producer in the world behind Brazil while Kenya sits third.
The report by the Tanzania Sisal Board (TSB) shows that the earnings from sisal fibre exports were $41.1 million after exporting a total of 25, 471 tonnes in 2017.
The cash crop was the leading contributor to the national income, contributing a lion’s share of 73 per cent of the total exports in 2017.
The popular export destinations are China, Saudi Arabia, Spain, India, Egypt, Japan, Nigeria, Libya and Morocco. During the same year, domestic earnings from sales of sisal fibres were Sh25.04 billion. The board plans to increase production of sisal to reach 53,237 tonnes in 2020/21 financial year from the current average of 34,589 tonnes per year.
World production of sisal and a similar agave fibre, henequen, is estimated at around 300,000 tonnes, valued at $75 million.
