Onion exports bring in Sh75 billion

Arusha. The export of 81,000 tonnes of onions in 2019 and 2020 earned Tanzania more than Sh75 billion.

The Business Environment Manager of the Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha), Mr Kelvin Remen, said this at the launch of the castor crop in Arusha

According to Mr Remen, in 2019, Tanzania sold 39,000 tonnes of onions to its fellow member countries of the East African Community (EAC), raking in at least Sh38 billion.

In the following year (2020), the country also sold more than 42,000 tonnes of the crop to the other EAC member countries for a total of Sh42.5 billion in export earnings.

“This shows that there are huge marketing opportunities fort he crop, particularly in the countries that surround us. And growing castors is part of the strategies that we have in increasing our exportearnings,” said Mr Remen.

For her part, the secretary of the Union of Onion Growers (UOG) in Arusha Region, Eva Mollel, said the union members have to surmount several challenges in marketing their produce, including packaging, as they rely on ‘Lumbesa’ packaging using gunny sacks, which are not good enough for exports.

As a result, they have asked the government to make interventions and stop farmers and some traders from using ‘lumbesa’ packaging.

“The lack of appropriate marketing has led to a fall in the onion prices, a thing which makes us lag behind economically because we fail to recover the costs we spent on production - let alone make a profit. I also think the government needs to make interventions on the issue of packaging so as to help farmers boost their economies,” Ms Mollel said.

Taha’s Gender and Nutrition coordinator, Salome Steven, said that, “in addition to farmers selling the crop outside the country, it is also has nutrition value to strengthen the health of Tanzanians, strengthening their brains, bones, hearts and teeth through natural chemicals.”