Tanzania government clarifies on food exports ban
Dar es Salaam. The government yesterday clarified that it has not suspended export permits for cereals and that it had no intention of doing so.
Agriculture deputy minister Omary Mgumba issued the clarification in response to a story published by The Citizen on Thursday saying the country was halting export of surplus food to pave the way for an audit of food reserves.
Mr Mgumba said although export of surplus food will continue, players will be required to comply with permit requirements.
“Legal procedures and requirements will continue to apply and actors will be required to secure export permits from relevant authorities because they provide control to the business. Issues related to certificates of origin that provide reports on areas and conditions at which crops have been produced will continue because they are significant,” he told The Citizen.
He said currently, a team of experts has been dispatched to assess the impact of drought in various parts of the country and that their report will be communicated to the public once complete.
“If the government has to ban exports of surplus food, the suspension will only be made after being informed by a report from a team of experts doing the assessment. Therefore, export of food remain unchanged in spite of drought fears from domestic and regional bodies, because of our confidence in the amount of food we have in stock.”
Mr Mgumba said the government has made several commitments with various actors, including the World Food Programme (WFP) that intended to supply food to several countries facing food shortages.
He said the business has provided farmers with better prices and improved their standard of life, noting that the government would like to see the business prosper provided that the country is assured of food sufficiency.
According to him, Rwanda, Burundi and Malawi require 100,000 tonnes of cereals each, Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo DRC) over 100,000 tonnes and that Kenya has also expressed interest to buy food from Tanzania.
“Over two years, farmers have been complaining of low prices, we can’t halt exports at this time when we have secured reliable markets,” he said.
He called on Tanzania businesspeople to take advantage of the situation by collecting enough food from various parts of country and sell at better prices when the shortage becomes critical around the region.
“Assessment also aims to show the government’s respect to domestic and regional monitoring bodies,” he said. The minister earlier on Wednesday explained the permits could be temporarily halted despite the exports remaining active, but yesterday he explained that he had been quoted out of context in the story published on Thursday.
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