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According to the most recent statistics from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Tanzania has developed into a center for food exports, feeding nations in the African region as well as the rest of the world.
According to data from Tanzania's central bank, the nation sold veggies worth $1.01 billion (Sh2.4 trillion) over the course of five years, from 2018 to 2022. Tanzania also exported grain crops worth $999 million (Sh2.3 trillion) during the same period, primarily rice and maize.
“These statistics indicate that Tanzania is among the top five rice producers on the entire African continent and the largest rice producer in East Africa,” the bank relayed via a statement released on March 17, 2023.
Tanzania produced 1.85 million tonnes of rice during the 2020–21 growing season, but the nation only needs about a million tonnes annually. This indicates that there were 850,000 tonnes of extra rice.
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Tanzania produced 6.5 million tonnes of maize during the same season, exceeding the nation's annual requirement of 6 million tonnes.
While fruit exports were worth $71.4 million (Sh170 billion) between 2018 and 2022, fish and fish product exports totaled S$800 million (Sh1.9 trillion).
These figures were released as President Samia Suluhu Hassan raised the curtain on the Africa Food Systems Forum, a significant agricultural gathering that will take place in Tanzania from September 5 to 8, this year.
This growth in it Agricultural sector is coming alongside a growing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rate in the country, all of which has been fueled by President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s business-minded approach to governance.
The growth in these sectors is a result of the favorable business conditions, being put in place via the president’s initiatives, making local and foreign businesses operate in one of the most conducive business ecosystems in all of Africa.
President Samia has increased the government's budget for agriculture by twofold since taking office in March 2021, reaching levels unseen since the country's independence in 1961.
The Samia administration also made investments in irrigation farming, fertilizer subsidies, seed production, and seed subsidies, all of which helped explain the region's remarkable productivity over the previous five years.