AG:TCP/URT/6612 TECHNICAL COOPERATION PROGRAMME LIVESTOCK MARKETING AND SMALL STOCK EXPORT PROMOTION THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA Terminal Statement the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 1998 |
AG:TCP/URT/6612 TECHNICAL COOPERATION PROGRAMME LIVESTOCK MARKETING AND SMALL STOCK EXPORT PROMOTION THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA Terminal Statement the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 1998 |
2.1 Preliminary assessment and strategy formulation
2.3 Small stock terminal market construction
2.4 Dar-es-Salaam municipal abattoir development
2.5 Trade promotion mission to the United Arab Emirates
2.6 Formation of livestock traders' and exporters' associations
Tanzania's livestock sub-sector, with ruminant numbers approaching thirty million head, holds vast potential for increased production. However, this is not presently being realized. Growth and production rates are characteristically low across the spectrum and what modest investments are being made in the sub-sector are disproportionately concentrated on the national cattle herd. The relatively neglected sheep and goat resource contains well over half the ruminant total, provides a significant proportion of all animal protein consumed (especially in rural areas) and offers unique opportunities, through its development, to generate economic benefit to a wide swathe of society, including the more disadvantaged of rural communities.
Sustainable future growth within the livestock sub-sector will depend on the successful integration of pastoral and rangeland production with grassland and intensive fattening into tiered and dynamic production systems. Exports will constitute an important element in this evolution. Access to premium export prices is needed to render investments in livestock breeding and fattening enterprises commercially viable. This is nowhere more true or feasible than in regard to sheep and goat development and the nearby, globally important livestock and carcass markets of Arabia.
Entrepreneurial interest in exporting is high but the sector lacks know-how and is not supported by infrastructure and services. Ministries are in a restructuring phase. Under government policy, the Ministry of Agriculture is withdrawing from all former commercial activity and will concentrate on the creation of an enabling free-enterprise environment. The lack of resources and expertise remains a patent and serious limiting factor to livestock marketing and the development of export markets. The Government of Tanzania therefore requested FAO to provide assistance in laying the foundations for small stock marketing development, planning subsequent strategy and detailing future assistance requirements to overcome envisaged constraints.
This assistance was approved by FAO in May 1996 under the Technical Cooperation Programme project TCP/URT/6612, Livestock marketing and small stock export promotion, with an estimated project duration of two years and a budgetary contribution of $US 293 000, later increased to $US 303 000 to cover the cost of roofing the new Dar-es-Salaam sheep and goat market. The project was based under the Marketing and Planning Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, specifically within the Marketing Development Bureau (MDB). Counterpart staff, secretarial services and office accommodation were provided by the Bureau. The Assistant Commissioner and the Head of the Livestock Unit, MDB, were the senior government counterparts to the FAO adviser. Field staff and market reporters attached to the project were extension officers of the Ministry's regional staff. Funds were made available by the ASMP (UTF/URT/107/URT) to meet some of the costs of the Market Information System (MIS) services and to carry out a training seminar for market reporters and extension officers. The project was declared operational in May 1996 and came to an end in March 1998.
The project's objective was to enhance producer income-earning possibilities by improving livestock marketing support services, especially for small stock.
The accurate description and specification of products on offer and an adequate showcase for display are basic requirements for the effective promotion and marketing of any range of products - especially to new markets and even more particularly to export markets. Neither of these necessary requirements existed to promote Tanzania's small stock as an export commodity. Top priority was accorded to the correction of this situation. Concurrently, it was necessary to inform local entrepreneurs and government officers, through a desk study, of the latest market trends within the Middle East, as a whole and state by state, prior to fielding the scheduled promotion mission. Other programme objectives, including improvements to domestic market design, infrastructure and services, and the setting up and revamping of Market Information Systems, were also undertaken.
The project revamped the moribund cattle marketing information service and developed a similar system covering small stock in four regions. Establishment of the latter involved: settlement of animal description on a scheme of four grades; estimation of live and carcass weight by girth measurement; design of a pictorial reporting format; training of marketing and MDB Livestock Unit officers; and the construction of a transportable set of small stock handling yards (the latter is easily adaptable for ship-side use).
From the MIS output and one-off marketing survey results in central and western regions, a comprehensive and expanding database of local and export-relevant information has been built up. Multi-variable analysis enables authoritative reporting on primary and terminal market prices, market throughput and livestock description, availability and source of export quality animals.
MIS expansion beyond present coverage will depend on the devolution of responsibility to district level owing to physical and logistic constraints inherent in the present system. The Government should now look to the setting up of interconnected but autonomous livestock and livestock product marketing information units reporting to a central ministry and adopt the FAO Agri-market computer software program for data handling. In this way the development of a national market reporting system will become possible and sustainable under the new decentralized government structure presently under implementation.
A new small stock market, designed and constructed by the project at Pugu holding ground, has been provided to replace the inadequate and environmentally unacceptable marketing arrangement at Vingunguti (virtually kerb-side urban trading). Additionally, as a small stock display centre, the facility will play a central role in export promotion, involving the hosting of fact-finding or actual buying missions from importing countries.
With steel-built facilities to handle, sort, weigh and hold substantial numbers with ease, the market has under-cover night penning for a thousand head of small stock - the design provides for this to be doubled when needed. The guttered, roofed area (650 m2) will provide clean water for livestock and market users from stored rainfall. Some work, however, remains to be completed (power rationing plagued construction throughout) and this has been detailed and discussed with the Ministry and the Municipal Authority.
The market must be completed without delay and put into use in order to ensure its upkeep and immediate usefulness. Additionally, and importantly, the Government should take advantage of the new terminal market in its programme to privatize and upgrade marketing services. Given appropriate technical and international training assistance, this is eminently achievable. Should it be successfully accomplished, a blueprint would result for the development of a vibrant new industry with good employment opportunities for both retrenched ministry personnel and other career seekers.
Dar-es-Salaam Municipal Abattoir, the only facility providing small stock custom slaughter services, is within the city's urban area and is run-down and operationally substandard. The present Vingunguti sheep and goat market, which will be replaced by the project's new structure, is sited close to this abattoir. As maintenance of the proximity of these two facilities (market and abattoir) is considered important to prevent rampant bush and backyard slaughtering, the project identified a disused textile plant, Kiltex, close to the terminal livestock market, as an ideal site for the construction of a new, modern abattoir. The City Commission subsequently acquired this property and, through the Ministry of Agriculture, requested FAO assistance in the planning and design of a new municipal facility.
The improvement of livestock marketing infrastructure and services and the development of acceptable slaughterhouses, in unison, are essential to bring about viable and sustainable benefits to the livestock sub-sector. In addition to providing domestic consumer protection, an export standard municipal abattoir, accredited for ritual slaughter and sited, as this one shall be, close to the international airport, will bring the globally important Middle East carcass market within a few hours of flying time. It is crucially important, therefore, that the standard of construction and operation of the planned new abattoir meet international standards to give entrepreneurs the opportunity to access offshore markets.
A trade mission to the United Arab Emirates was undertaken, following six months of thorough preparation. It comprised an Assistant Commissioner from the Ministry of Agriculture; a senior ministry veterinarian; a businessman and entrepreneur; and the project's Chief Technical Adviser.
The seven Emirate States constitute a substantial market for exporters of live animals and meat, with Dubai being the most active. Through location and economic policy, the UAE is also important as a bulking, processing and re-export centre for the whole Gulf Region. Livestock and meat imports complying with health and hygiene requirements have virtually unrestricted entry and market growth is predicted to continue.
Tanzania's livestock and carcass meat, in type and quality, were found to compare favourably with interregional consignments inspected on the Gulf markets. The outlook for export development from Tanzania was concluded by the mission to be most promising, but -global marketplace reality being as it is - this will depend on enterprise and sustained government and private-sector endeavour to this end.
Tanzania enjoys geographic, communication and cultural advantages with the Gulf market; its indigenous livestock is of the type preferred and sought after by Arab consumers (Australasian sheep imports are considered inferior and for expatriate consumption only); price differentials are conducive to trade; and scope to develop domestic supply within Tanzania is potentially high. Successful capitalization of these advantages rests on securing healthy trade-stock by exporters; investment in efficient marketing, movement, quarantine, port-side infrastructure and services; establishment of export-standard processing facilities; and a build-up of export marketing knowledge, skills and commercial relationships - the latter cemented by the consistency and reliability of private entrepreneurs as trading partners over time.
Formation of the Livestock Exporters' Association, initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1994, foundered. In retrospect it can be said that this was because it was ahead of its time. Livestock and carcass exports will begin in a small way, pioneered by individual entrepreneurs willing to risk capital, time and failure. From this start, in the best-case scenario, exports will gradually build up as expertise, supporting infrastructure and services grow and product reputation spreads, thus creating the need and raison d'�tre for an association.
These conclusions precluded any project move to revive the association. However, the potential benefits of establishing a Livestock Traders' Association were thoroughly explored. The reasons for such an association were found to be compelling in this era of democracy and free-market expansion. Issues abound which demand that the representative voice of livestock traders be heard and heeded in decision-making forums. Problems directly affecting traders' income and operation (and ultimately those of producers) and on which they currently have no effective voice, include: the drastically reduced performance of TRC with regard to cattle haulage to Dar-es-Salaam; the decrease in Tanzania's largest terminal market - from 12 000 - 18 000 head per month in the early nineties down to 5 000 - 7 000 in 1997; the dilapidated state of livestock marketing infrastructure and services throughout the country (for which fees are levied); and the slowness of ongoing efforts at rehabilitation.
Additionally, an association is required for internal regulation, control and discipline of livestock traders, for the greater good of all members and the protection of the public. These aspects would include: greater transparency in regard to licensing issues, including ensuring compliance with conditions and the detection of non-licensed activity; protection of buyers and sellers through the adoption of and adherence to a code of conduct (this backed up with appropriate sanctions); and provision of an open forum for debate, consensus and action taking. The need to maintain formal, meaningful communications between the industry and Government is a further compelling reason for the existence of an association.
These few examples only serve to indicate the number of issues awaiting the involvement of a properly constituted association. Interest in setting up such a body was found to be high among the national traders with whom it was discussed and this interest should be taken advantage of by the Ministry in promoting and supporting its formation.
Once the Livestock Traders' Association is functioning and export has taken root, the opportune time will have arrived for the formation of an exporters' organization. This will best be achieved through the formation of a sub-committee within the Livestock Traders' Association and its registration with TANEXA - the association for exporters of non-traditional Tanzanian crops, among which livestock is classed.
All aspects of the promotional and development work undertaken in the past twelve months with regard to livestock marketing and exports should be speedily built on and taken to the next level, that is, to the actual exporting stage. It is most important that the interest and momentum generated in the private sector, locally and in the Gulf, not be allowed to dissipate fruitlessly. The planning and construction of an international standard municipal abattoir should likewise be pushed forward to completion urgently. The investments made in small stock market infrastructure and MIS development should be regarded as precursory to replication countrywide. The privatization of marketing services, the enabling and devolution of MIS responsibility to district level and the formation of an effective Livestock Traders' Association should be incorporated as additional objectives in follow-up activities.
It is recommended that follow-on development be pursued as a priority; ideally, within the framework of an integrated sheep and goat development project. In addition to marketing services and export promotion, the project should include production, extension and health components in its purview. The linking of marketing improvements and export promotion -with the prospects of increased marketed off-take, job creation and the lifting of producer returns - with sheep and goat-sector development as a whole, will assist rural poverty alleviation and enhance food security. Furthermore, the design and inclusion of specific facilities targeted at those especially disadvantaged (women and children) would be a valuable means of providing economic uplift and empowerment to these, the two most vulnerable groups within rural society.
It is recommended that the Government immediately follow up its submission of the investment project identification and preparation phase document with UNDP and other donors. This short-term assistance would provide the Ministry of Agriculture with the necessary resources to complete the new Dar-es-Salaam Sheep and Goat Terminal Market, continue with the livestock MIS service and export promotion activities and prepare for a follow-on project within the livestock marketing and sheep and goat sub-sector and see formulation through to the review and acceptance stage.
It is strongly recommended that formulation of the proposed integrated sheep and goat project allow for easy unbundling of components. This will facilitate the matching of one or more components with the individual donor's development priorities and areas of expertise. Components that can already be identified to be accorded top priority and stand-alone status are:
- Planning and completion of the Municipal Abattoir to an international standard and the training of management and workforce in all necessary skills.
- Livestock marketing, live animal and meat export promotion and support; including assistance in the formation and empowerment of a Livestock Traders' Association with an elected board and professional executive; development of sheep and goat quarantine and port-side handling facilities.
- Duplication of the DSM Terminal Sheep and Goat Market Facilities in all important regions of production and the upgrading and privatization of livestock marketing services through training and legislation.
- Devolution and enablement of livestock marketing information service responsibility to district level throughout the country and strengthening of the Ministry Headquarters' coordinating role.