Why standards are no longer a compliance exercise and what Tanzania’s horticulture farmers are proving

By Elibariki Shammy

Trade has always operated within rules. For much of the twentieth century, those rules centred on tariffs. As tariffs have fallen through successive WTO negotiations, a different set of barriers has taken their place: technical standards.

Today, an avocado consignment moving from Arusha to Germany must meet phytosanitary requirements, traceability rules, pesticide residue limits and, increasingly, supply chain due diligence obligations linked to the EU deforestation regulation.

A farmer in Njombe growing green peas for export faces a level of compliance that would have been unrecognisable a generation ago.

This expansion of standards reflects real shifts in consumer expectations, regulatory oversight and investor scrutiny.

Food safety concerns, environmental pressures and sustainability requirements have pushed buyers in high income markets to demand verifiable proof of compliance.

Schemes such as Global G.A.P., the British Retail Consortium and the Global Food Safety Initiative now function less as technical benchmarks and more as gateways to premium markets.

The World Bank (2025), estimates that technical barriers to trade, including standards compliance costs, outweigh the impact of tariffs in some sectors by a factor of two or more.

For smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, limited access to finance, infrastructure and information has historically turned these requirements into barriers to entry rather than pathways to growth.

Standards are no longer a bureaucratic hurdle to clear. They have become a strategic asset. The question for African producers is no longer whether to engage with standards, but how to do so in a way that is affordable, scalable and commercially sustainable.

Africa’s agricultural potential is widely recognised. Diverse climates, fertile soils and proximity to fast growing markets position the continent well within global supply chains. What has been missing is not production capacity, but the institutional systems needed to demonstrate compliance at scale.

The African Continental Free Trade Area adds urgency to this challenge. By lowering internal trade barriers, AfCFTA expands market opportunities and also raises expectations around quality and consistency.

If African producers are to compete on value rather than price alone, standards compliance must underpin both regional and international trade. Intra African trade reached around $5 billion in 2024, supported by corridor investments and policy reforms.

Yet value added agricultural exports- the segment most capable of generating rural jobs and stable incomes, remain constrained by gaps in standards infrastructure.

Closing those gaps is not a technical exercise. It is a development priority.

TradeMark Africa’s Standards and Sanitary and Phytosanitary portfolio sits at the centre of this agenda. Its proposition is straightforward: standards compliance is not a constraint on competitiveness for African firms; it is a precondition for it.

Tanzania’s horticulture sector offers a practical illustration of what this looks like in practice.

According to the Bank of Tanzania's Monthly Economic Review (2024), horticulture became Tanzania's leading agricultural export earner, generating $569.3 million in 2024- up from $417.7 million in 2023, a rise of over 36 % in a single year.

This growth reflects sustained investment in certification systems, market linkages and institutional capacity.

Working with the Tanzania Horticulture Association (TAHA), TradeMark Africa sought to understand not only whether compliance support delivers results in aggregate, but what it means for individual farmers and firms.

The evidence comes from a Fast Cycle Learning study combining quantitative surveys of 79 respondents across Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Mbeya and Njombe with targeted interviews.

Among farmers who adopted compliant practices, 94.8% reported measurable changes in their enterprises.

Increased sales volumes and improved prices were the most common outcomes.

Rejection rates - a major source of income loss, declined significantly. Before compliance support, 65% of farmers experienced rejections affecting up to half their produce.

After adoption, 95% reported rejections affecting no more than a quarter.

Among exporting firms, the results were even more pronounced. All firms surveyed reported increases in export volumes and values, alongside reductions in rejection and hold rates.

Median export volumes rose by around 150%, and three quarters of firms entered new export markets, particularly in Europe, while also expanding reach into Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

These are realised outcomes, not projections. They reflect the experience of farmers and firms supplying certified avocados and green peas into markets where traceability and compliance are non-negotiable.

The inclusion effects are equally important. Female farmers reported higher increases in sales volumes than their male counterparts-187% compared with 128%.

Structured compliance support can narrow persistent income gaps in agricultural value chains when it is designed with equity in mind.

TAHA’s approach is systemic rather than transactional. It trains farmers on certification requirements, organises them into certified groups, links those groups to exporting firms and engages inspection bodies, input suppliers and finance providers to sustain the system.

The satisfaction data aligns with this design. More than 85% of associate members receiving training reported satisfaction, with no dissatisfaction recorded.

Firms receiving certification support reported 100% satisfaction. Cost remains the most significant constraint. While 96% of farmers and all firms benefited from support at no direct cost, 57.7% of farmers identified the financial burden of adoption as the hardest element to manage. Technical capability can be built. Financial mechanisms must be part of the solution.

The broader lesson extends beyond Tanzania and horticulture. Standards are no longer a procedural requirement endured for market access. They are the currency of modern trade, shaping buyer relationships, pricing power and income stability.

As new regulatory regimes emerge - from carbon border measures to supply chain due diligence and deforestation rules - compliance will require more than farm level change. It depends on national systems: certification bodies, testing laboratories, phytosanitary services and digital traceability platforms.

Tanzania’s recent institutional gains demonstrate the payoff from such investments.

Phytosanitary certificate processing times fell from days to hours. Certification timelines shortened, and costs declined.

These system level improvements underpin the farm level results now evident among TAHA members. Buyer requirements will continue to evolve. The compliance landscape of 2030 will look different from today’s. Standards, however, will remain central.

The choice facing African producers and policy-makers is not whether to meet these requirements, but whether to build the systems that make compliance viable at scale.

 Tanzania’s experience shows that the returns justify the investment. The price of entry into global markets has risen. So has the return on paying it.

The Author is Ag Regional Director for East and Central Africa, TradeMark Africa.