Posted on February, 2, 2022 at 08:28 am
Press reports that the Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha Group) has formulated a strategy that is designed to boost annual horticultural export earnings from the current $779 million to $1 billion by 2026 are most exciting indeed.
A 45-page Horticultural Blueprint for the strategy drawn up by Taha Group itself was formally launched at a Horticultural Business Forum that was part of Taha’s 15th Annual General Meeting held in Arusha City at the weekend. In the event, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe – while agreeing with the Blueprint’s proposals in principle – nonetheless counselled Taha and ministry officials to work with private sector operators in ensuring that the blueprint is functional on the ground so as to attain its intended results.
Among the goals of the strategy are the creation of employment opportunities and windfalls in foreign exchange earnings from horticultural exports of superlative quality and quantities. The general idea is to boost horticultural exports from 850 tonnes in 2021 to around 2,000 tonnes in 2026. Another pivotal goal is to secure sustainable and classy export markets amid stiff competition – including, for example, China’s 1.4.4 billion consumer market for avocado imports, currently valued at $133 million a year. Indeed, Taha has not been lackadaisical in this. The nation’s horticultural game changer has been working in close collaboration with assorted major development partners on its strategy. These have included the US Department of Agriculture (USDA); the US Agency for International Aid (USAID); Plan International; Trade-Mark East Africa (TMEA); Andreas Hermes Akademie (AHA of Germany) – among others from Belgium and Finland.
Horticulture does have a huge potential to lift Tanzanians out of abject poverty in a matter of a few years – and we can only wish Taha and its partners-in-development Godspeed in making the Horticultural Blueprint work the wonders that it has the potential for.
Source: The Citizen