• March 29, 2024

Adding value to tobacco – locally

 Adding value to tobacco – locally

Talks are underway between the Tanzanian government and investors from China and Vietnam about setting up tobacco processing and cigarette manufacturing facilities in Tanzania, according to story in the Daily News.

The Trade, Industry and Investment Minister Charles Mwijage told the National Assembly yesterday that the government was on the right course to attract such investments to regions where the crop was grown.

The minister was responding to a question from the Tabora Urban member of parliament Emanuel Mwakasaka who wanted to know the government’s plans to set up a tobacco processing factory in the Tabora region.

The MP said that despite being a leading tobacco producer, the Tabora region had for many years lacked a factory to process the crop.

In response, the minister said that it was the commitment of the government to ensure that every region had a factory appropriate for the crops it produced or the other economic activities that it was involved in.

Mwijage said last year the Tabora region had produced 39,502 tons of tobacco which was taken to the Morogoro Region for processing and value addition at the factories of Tanzania Tobacco Processing Limited and Alliance One Tobacco.

But he added that a team of investors from China was due to visit the Tabora region this week to make an assessment of whether or not they should set up a factory.

“Our aim is to have serious investors who will be manufacturing cigarettes which conform to international standards using the locally-produced raw material,” he said.

In this way, farmers would have a reliable market and more employment opportunities would be created for Tanzanians.