Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has challenged the Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL) to establish joint venture with local peasants in cultivating barley, an important ingredient in beer processing. Launching the new TBL Dar es Salaam’s fourth packaging line in the city yesterday, Mr Pinda said such contract farming could also benefit local people by improving their socio-economic lives.
He said there was no need for TBL to continue importing barley, because Tanzania has plenty of arable land suitable for cultivating the crop. The prime minister said there was need for TBL to establish pilot barley farms, to set an example for the rest of the farmers in the country to learn from.
He added that a research done recently had showed that land in Rukwa region, for example, could be suitable for barley. “Tanzania has 44 million hectares of arable land out of which only 10.8 million hectares are currently under cultivation. We could engage our people to cultivate barley as an alternative cash crop,” he said.
Mr Pinda called on local industries to use local materials in producing their goods and services, saying such a system created employment, thus, reducing poverty margin among the people. The prime minister said green revolution in the country was possible, if agricultural experts could play their part dutifully.
Speaking during the event, the TBL Managing Director, Mr Robin Goetzsche, said the company would, in the next four years, spend over 350bn/- in expanding its activities countrywide. The Minister for Industries, Trade and Marketing, Dr Mary Nagu, has, meanwhile, urged TBL to honour its contract with the East African Breweries Limited, and sell its product in Kenya like Safari and Bingwa beer brands.
Tusker is sold in Tanzania but why is Safari and Bingwa not sold in Kenya?” she queried. In 2007, TBL made 346bn/- profit and paid tax amounting to 31bn/- to the government. Last year, the industry got a profit of 383bn/- , remitting 24bn/- to the government as tax.
The company will this year buy about 9,000 tonnes of barley in beer-making from farmers in Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions, for processing at its Moshi-based malting plant. The expansion of plantings to the southern regions of Iringa, Ruvuma, Rukwa and Mbeya could boost production of the grain to about 50,000 tonnes over five years.
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