TANZANIA – Tanzanian investors have entered into an agreement with Egyptian counterparts that will see the establishment of a meat processing plant in the country.

According to a report by the IPP Media, the investment will be run jointly by Ruvu Integrated Industry, the National Ranching Co. Ltd (NARCO) and an Egyptian firm NECAI.

Speaking after witnessing the signing of the agreement in Dar es Salaam, Luhaga Mpina, the minister for Livestock and Fisheries, said the plant to be located at NARCO’s Ruvu Ranch in Coast region.

The processing plant at Ruvu Integrated Industry, which currently has a capacity to slaughter 1,500 cattle and 4,500 goats, will also manufacture leather products such as shoes, belts, bags as well as animal feed.

Once complete, the minister said that the factory is expected to furnish 5,000 jobs and targets to sell processed meat to local outlets as well as the regional market and further afield.

The minister has directed the joint team of Tanzanian and Egyptian experts to complete working on the feasibility study of the project to allow construction of the plant to kick off.

The team constitute of experts drawn from the ministries of Livestock and Fisheries, Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Industry and Trade as well as the Attorney General’s Chambers.

Mpina further appealed for more investments from Egypt through the 223,000 square kilometres Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covering an area which is also rich in the high on demand tuna fish in the international market.

“Egypt can also invest in the fish processing industry, fish farming as well as deep sea fishing in Tanzanian international waters,” he said. 

Mohamed Gaber Abulwafa, the Egyptian Ambassador to Tanzania, said that the agreement is a culmination of a preliminary accord reached between head of states of the two countries.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had committed to help construct a mega-meat processing plant in Tanzania owed to sufficient quality livestock enough to sustain a mega meat processing plant.

According to a report Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, Tanzania has one of the largest livestock populations in Africa with roughly 13.5 million heads of cattle, 5.5 million goats and 23.2 million chickens.