Reforming Tanzania's tea sector: a story of success?

An earlier version of this paper (which also contains an extensive discussion of the world tea market) has been published in the World Bank's Africa Working Paper series (Baffes, 2004a).

Abstract

Tea, one of Tanzania's major export crops, contributes about $30 million to the country's export earnings and provides employment to some 50 000 families. Despite the sector's early success, nationalisation of two estates along with neglect of the smallholder sector made it clear that only broad-based policy reforms would revive the sector. Reforms in the tea sector started much earlier than reforms in other export crop sectors. Furthermore, they were undertaken, and hence owned, by the government and the industry. The reforms have been by and large successful. There has been considerable supply response, tea quality has improved, and the research system has been very successful in developing and disseminating useful research findings to both estates and smallholders. However, some issues must be addressed, namely excessive taxation, over-regulation, and the trade policy environment.

An earlier version of this paper (which also contains an extensive discussion of the world tea market) has been published in the World Bank's Africa Working Paper series (Baffes, 2004a).

The views expressed here are those of the author and should not be attributed to the World Bank. I would like to thank Takamasa Akiyama, Betty Dow, Donald Mitchell, Hans Timmer, and Nanae Yabuki for comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. I am grateful to Ria Ketting, George Kyejo, SH Mijinga, Bruno J Ndunguru, Hadija Shakombo, RJ Surrey, and staff at the East Usambaras Tea Company for the valuable information obtained during interviews. I would also like to thank the World Bank country office staff in Dar es Salaam, especially Ladisy Chengula and Gloria Sindano.

Notes

An earlier version of this paper (which also contains an extensive discussion of the world tea market) has been published in the World Bank's Africa Working Paper series (Baffes, 2004a).