Tanzania strategies to become Africa's tobacco-producing giant

Dar es Salaam. The government has outlined strategies aimed at enabling the country to become Africa's largest tobacco producer, including improving the sector’s business environment.

Other strategies are improving the quality of produced tobacco, providing farmers with better prices, mobilising regions that abandoned crop production to resume production and strengthening the distribution of agricultural inputs to increase the crop’s productivity.

The government outlined the strategies on Friday, January 12, 2024, a few days after reports declared Tanzania the second-largest tobacco producer in Africa for the year 2022/2023.

Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe made the statement on his X account (formerly Twitter), saying Tanzania increased tobacco production from 50,000 metric tonnes to 122,858 metric tonnes in 2023/24.

He said that as of December 2023, tobacco exports were valued at $316 million, to garner $400 million.

“For the 2024/2025 season, we are optimistic of reaching 200,000 metric tonnes against the target of 300,000 by 2025/26,” reads part of his statement posted on X.

Mr Bashe applauded farmer associations and tobacco companies, saying for the first time, over 50 percent of tobacco has been bought and sold abroad, 100 percent by local companies.

“It was not an easy journey. I thank all the tobacco board staff; we dreamed, we did it, and we kept pushing. We will become Africa’s number one producer,” said the minister.

In the statement, Mr Bashe listed the top 10 tobacco-producing countries and their respective quantities of produce in brackets as: Zimbabwe (296,000); Tanzania (122,858); Malawi (121,000); Mozambique (65,800); Zambia (44,000); and Uganda (13, 000), and that three countries, including South Africa and Cameroon, recorded low production below 20,000 metric tonnes.

“The agro-transformation journey requires strong government policies and a firm private sector. We are soon going to become the second largest crop-producing country in the world,” he said, commending members of the X platform for their good and tireless feedback.

During an interview with The Citizen, Stanley Mnozya, director general of the Tanzania Tobacco Board (TTB), attributed the country's success to the government's implementation of strategies to improve the business environment and increase investor confidence.

He said despite having good investment policies, investors need a safe business environment for them to confidently bring in their capital.

“If you can remember, tobacco companies were sued at the Fair Competition Commission (FCC) three years ago where they were required to pay Sh7 trillion in compensation, which is extremely huge to be mobilised even in 10 years,” he said.

“Submitted charges show that there was a lack of communication among institutions. Other stakeholders reported having their offices raided by people entrusted with tax collection,” he added.

The acts of mistreatment perpetrated on investors, including extracting information from their servers, not only scared them but also discouraged the majority of those who opted to leave the country.

“However, all these issues have been addressed as all government institutions now speak the same language under TTB coordination,” he said.

According to him, the country has now created a conducive environment for investors to provide feedback and disseminate valuable information about the country’s tobacco, hence impressing investors’ demands on Tanzania’s produce.

Mr Mnozya said efforts are underway to improve the quality of Tanzanian tobacco, saying the country has acquired over 98 percent of globally accepted quality.

“This has improved the price offered to farmers. Mobilisation has been done for farmers in Iringa, Morogoro, Songea, Geita, Kagera, Kigoma and Mara regions that abandoned tobacco farming to resume production,” he said.

Owing to the significance of the timely distribution of agriculture inputs to tobacco farmers and the involvement of extension services in increasing agricultural productivity, he said the government is intending to make major reforms in the upcoming stakeholders meeting.

“Intended reforms are aimed at ensuring that the inputs reach farmers on time to enable the country to reach the 300,000 metric tonnes target from the same size of cultivated land,” he said.

“Our target is to increase tobacco production from the present 1,300 kilo per hectare to 1,800 kilogrammes, which has already been attained by some African countries like Zimbabwe,” he added.

Tanzania's target, Mr Mnozya said, was to produce 1,400 kilogrammes of tobacco per hectare, then gradually increase to 1,650 kilogramme, before attaining the 1,950-kilogramme target per hectare in 2030.

According to him, the strategies involve addressing the challenge of postharvest losses that claim a total of 167 kilogrammes per hectare from the harvesting, transportation, and storage stages.

“We are now improving the quality of drying and storage facilities and encouraging local investors’ involvement in the subsector,” he said.

Tobacco-growing regions

According to the TTB website, in Tanzania, tobacco is grown in Tabora, Katavi, Shinyanga, Geita, Kagera, Kigoma, Iringa, Singida, Mbeya, Ruvuma, Songwe, Mara, and Morogoro regions, therefore creating a huge opportunity for citizens.

Production and export trends

The ministry of Agriculture 2023/24 budget document shows that in 2019/20, Tanzania produced 53,689 metric tonnes of tobacco, generating $187.34 million.

The volume and generated revenue in the respective financial years in brackets are 30,432 metric tonnes ($106.278 million in 2020/21); 46,614 metric tonnes ($157.302 million in 2022/22); and and metric tonnes ($154.084 million in 2022/23).

Stakeholers’ remarks

A tobacco farmer owning an average of 100 to 120 acres, Mr Algeto Kacheza, said timely access to fertiliser and better prices offered to farmers would improve crop productivity in the country.

“Access to irrigation infrastructure would be an added advantage to tobacco farmers because it would reduce the size of recruited casual labourers, hence increasing farmers' earnings,” said the resident of Chunya, Mbeya Region.

Furthermore, he said in the previous season, he managed to harvest nearly 50,000 kilogrammes of tobacco, which fetched an average of Sh4,500 to Sh5,000 per kilo.

Another crop stakeholder, Mr Meckfason Moshi, said from Iringa that the price of tobacco inputs, especially NPK fertiliser, was extremely high for normal farmers to afford, calling on the government to consider providing subvention.

“TTB has come up with a good procedure requiring tobacco farmers to plant trees annually to conserve the environment. However, some farmers are not posing future threats of tree shortages for firewood required in the crop drying process,” he said.