Queen Nwabueze
As the Tanzanian authorities enhanced the marketing of its value-added meat products abroad, the country’s meat export has risen by 57 percent in August 2022 due to a rise in demand of its meat in foreign countries.
Data from the Tanzania Meat Board shows that in August, the country’s meat exports reached US$3.048 million, a massive leap from exports worth US$1.9 million in July, 2022.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelQatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait are the major markets for meat from the East African nation, with the five markets accounting for 51 percent, 17.26 percent, 11.74 percent, 8.2 and 6.597 percent respectively of Tanzania’s meat exports.
The remaining volume is exported to Zanzibar, Hong Kong, Comoros and Jordan, reports The Citizen.
According to the registrar of Tanzania Meat Board, Dr Daniel Mushi, the number of countries in search of meat from Tanzania has been on the rise due to an improvement in quality.
“In recent years, the meat market has been increasing because of the quality of the meat being exported…Previously, breeders could not observe the rules of breeding such as feed, water, treatment and prevention of diseases as well as keeping livestock in a clean condition,” he said.
Official data from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development show that until May 2022, the total number of cattle in Tanzania was at 35.3 million, while for goats was at 25.6 million.
Sheep population stood at 8.8 million while the number of local chickens stood at 92.8 million.
The registrar highlighted that goat meat accounts for the lion’s shares of the country’s meat exports, thanks to its good taste.
For instance, he said, out of the US$3.048 million in meat exports in August, US$2.1 million of it was goat meat. The remaining amount was earned from a combined export of beef, sheep, chicken, pigs and offals.
Tanzania produces 581,804 tonnes of meat and meat products annually, with 96 percent consumed locally.
The country has been gaining more export markets following the country’s rise in investment in value addition of meat products, and processing undertaken in accordance to the stipulated international safety and quality standards.
Some of the leading meat processors in the country include Tanchoice that recently opened its new US$10m processing plant with a capacity to process 1,000 herds of cattle and 4,500 goats and sheep per day using high tech equipment.
Others companies include the Al-Kaffir of Oman and the Tanzania Meat Company both in Dodoma. The latter has a capacity to slaughter 400 head of cattle and 6,000 goats and sheep daily.
Meanwhile, Mwanza-based Chobo Investment Factory opened in 2020, has a capacity of slaughtering 600 cattle and 920 goats per day.
