Polish govt lends Sh54bn for maize industry

 Polish government has issued a loan of Sh54bn to the Tanzania government for the construction of maize processing plants and warehouses in five regions including Ruvuma, Njombe, Rukwa, Shinyanga and Manyara to make room for export  to  the  neighbouring  countries.

 

The factories and 400,000 tonne-storage capacity warehouses to be built in each of the five regions in the next two years are expected to serve farmers in the neighbouring regions as a market for their produce.

 

Though there are scanty mills and warehouses of maximum storage capacity of 200,000 tonnes in the regions, they are too few and small to match with the challenging demands of the market.

 

Manyara’s Babati District Commissioner Crispin Meela told The Guardian in a telephone interview yesterday that the warehouses to be built in his jurisdiction will enable farmers in the neighbouring regions of Singida and Dodoma to enjoy a reliable market for their products. 

 

He said the factories will also produce maize flour for export to the neighboring countries of Kenya and the Southern Sudan, given adequacy at home and the great demand in those countries. 

 

“The project is implemented by Municipal Councils in the respective regions under the supervision of the National Food Reserve Authority (NFRA) Food, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Polish government as part of the government plan to increase the food storage capacity in the country in concurrence with the current demand,” Meela said. 

He also hailed the project, saying it would control market intruders randomly disturbed the market chain by setting up maize prices to the detriment of producers. 

 

Citing Babati as an example, he said the non-sanctioned brokers have caused market havoc by lobbying farmers into selling their maize products prematurely, keeping nothing in store, apparently leading to their starvation. 

 

 He called upon the maize farmers to exploit the opportunities out of the new plants and warehouses by increasing production of the crop whose value would be added given availability of the market.

 

He also hailed the project, saying it would create more than 1,000 jobs in babati alone, let alone other in other districts where the project would up and running. 

 

But he also urged upon tax authorities to reduce the burden of tax on the seed companies, saying it was one of the major motives behind the maize industry downfall in the district.

 

He suggested facilitation of the locally-produced seeds as opposed to the imported ones that are devoid of any tariffs.

 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN