Tanzania exports are increasing both in value and quantity, but a premier association of local exporters say export policies are weak and have failed to help them benefit from their comparative advantage over others in the region in many fields.
Tanzania Exporters Association (TANEXA), a premiere trade association representing growers, exporters and service providers in export trade say export policies are so weak and contradictory that they have not helped to boost local exports.
The Executive Director of TANEXA, Mr Lawrence Naluyaga, told the ‘Business Standard’ that constraints under the current policies include a number of permits that complicate export process, cross border money transaction and lack of exporting skill among them.
He said exports policies structured are not well suited for East African Community (EAC) and the rest of the world. “This makes it difficult for our goods to be sold overseas…and it’s unfair.
Policies are marred by a number of constraints to discourage exporters, especially at small scale exports,” Mr Naluyaga said.
He said, for instance, cross border trading at Mtukula in Kagera, Kasumulu in Kyela and Tuduma, Mbeya and Kibaigwa maize market in Dodoma are not export rather an open bazaar at the border post.
“Tanzanians are waiting customers to cross border and sell at local currency. This is not exporting,” Mr Naluyaga said. “This is also the case with Comoro traders… we wait them to come and buy using our currency.”
The TANEXA director was responding to the ‘Daily News’ query regarding how to assist Keko Furniture Traders to capitalise the Comoro market.
Keko Furniture Traders have ventured into the Comoro market where they sell about 30 sofas, 20 dining tables and 30 cabinets of various types per month. The Keko Furniture Association member, Mr Florian Kushaba, said roughly after every two months Comoros traders were buying a good quantity of furniture.
“We have started to receive regular clients from Comoro,” Mr Kushaba who works for Kushaba Commercial Enterprise, told the ‘Business Standard.’ The association has about 30 members and employed about 60 permanent staff. The furniture
bazaar is along Chang’ombe Road.
The price of a seven-seat sofas depending with type and material used is sold between 700,000/- and 3.0m/-. Mkopi Furniture Centre Services Director, Mr Jumanne Zuberi, said business with Comoros was seasonal and usually picks up when approaching the fasting month of Ramadhan.
“This is the period when most Comoros are engaged in social activities, especially marriages, to push up their spending spree and furniture is used as gifts to the newly weds.” “They usually pay in hard cash, in shilling and not in US dollars,” Mr Zuberi said.
Mr Naluyaga said most cross border traders exchange their monies at their respective country thus benefit their current account receipts. “This weaken our shilling, but also makes it difficult for local export traders to maximise their profits,” he said.
Mr Naluyaga said since the locals lack export know-how, the best way was to form an association or a cooperative and standardise their products in a way that they could be able to produce goods of the same quality in the future. To measure how much foreign exchange is lost overtime from small scale exports, he said, Kenyans were buying maize at Kibaigwa market in our local currency.
“Kenyans exchange their money back home… this was supposed to be done inside our borders…but most borders do not have proper facilities,” he said. Tanzania’s exports to SADC increased by 22 per cent to reach 2.33tri/- in 2012 from 1.91tri/- in 2011, according to official data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Similarly, the country earned 956.7bn/- from exports to EAC member states in 2012, a 49 per cent increase from the 641.6bn/- registered in 2011. Analysing the figures Tanzania has a deficit when trading with SADC but surplus when trading
within EAC.
This means the country export more and get relatively extra foreign exchange trading with Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi (EAC Bloc), while it imports relatively more than what it export to SADC, thus losing foreign exchange earnings.
TANEXA, established 20 years ago, provides a focal and coordination point for the export industry by support growers and exporters with technical and marketing information.
By ABDUEL ELINAZA, Tanzania Daily News
