TANZANIA – Industrial marketing specialists have said Tanzanians are wasting half of their food products due to lack of packaging technologies and facilities, reducing the value of agricultural exports in the world market.
A research conducted by the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO) has revealed that over 50 percent of the packaging carried out by the Small and Medium Enterpreneurs (SMEs) in the country does not match the international standard, hence lowering the internal market value of the products and throwing them away from the world market.
SIDO’s Director of Training and Extension Services Pius Wenga said the research has revealed that the developing countries waste 20-50 percent of their food products due to poor or lack of packaging materials, while Europeans lose hardly 3 percent of their food products due to proper packaging, handling, transportation, containment and storage of their food products.
”We encourage farmers, small traders and exporters to focus on packaging because we want them to upgrade their products to match both the competitive local and international market” he said.
He said his organization would partner with the International Trade Centre (ITC) to provide SMEs with proper packaging gears from the Packaging Services Centre allocated at SIDO Industrial Estate along Nyerere road, Vingunguti area in Dar Es salaam.
“They have to think of packaging before they embark into marketing their products because packaging talks volumes about the quality of the product, otherwise they are bound to lose a lot of money,” Wenga was echoed by Fre’derine Derlot Copy, a ITC’s Programme Officer who was in Tanzania last week to meet juice and food processors and the local mango and spice farmers.
He also urged SIDO trainers to impart packaging knowledge into Tanzania’s hinterlands to win a place in international trades.
February 1, 2015; http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=76916
