The Bakhresa Group, an East African company, intends increasing its investment in Tanzania’s agricultural sector by setting up more fruit processing facilities to boost value addition and farmers’ incomes.
According to agricultural news portal, Fresh Plaza, company chairperson Said Bakhresa recently made the commitment to Tanzania’s prime minister, Kassim Majaliwa. Bakhresa has food processing plants in Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
READ: Proactive fruit farming techniques
It identified Tanzania’s Lake Zone for the new processing facilities, as farmers there have to travel up to 4 000km to Dar es Salaam to sell produce. Cotton, sunflower, sugar cane, spices, bananas, vanilla, sweet potatoes and sorghum are cultivated in the region, according to the Lake Zone Investment Forum.
Expanding processing capacity could increase the agricultural sector’s contribution to Tanzania’s economy. Agriculture absorbs 80% of the country’s workforce and Tanzania Invest statistics indicate that agriculture contributes nearly 30% to GDP.
