To that purpose, the two nations agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that outlines particular areas of collaboration in order to increase the market acceptance of Tanzania's horticulture products.
Tanzania was represented at the MoU signing event on Tuesday at the Ministry of Agriculture in Dodoma by Permanent Secretary Gerald Mweli, while the Netherlands' Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality was represented by Ambassador Wiebe de Boer. Mr. Bart Pauwels, regional agricultural counselor for the Dutch Embassy, and members of the Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA) were there to witness the signing.
The collaboration aims to boost agriculture trade efficiency for greater job generation and higher foreign revenues.
The National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs), the Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticide Authority (TPHPA), and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) shall carry out the terms of the agreed Memorandum of Understanding.
This occurs at a time when Tanzania's horticulture industry has experienced rapid expansion over the past three decades and is now one of the country's main sources of foreign money.
According to reports, horticulture exports made up a sizeable share of the total export value in 2019 and totaled $779 million. Approximately 4.5 million farmers, both small- and large-scale, primarily rely on this industry for their living today. The majority of these farmers are women and young people.
The Netherlands provided information, skills, technology, and innovations for sustainable horticulture commerce to fulfill the rising need for food in Tanzania and the surrounding area, according to Mr. de Boer, the ambassador of the Netherlands to Tanzania, who spoke at the event.
“Tanzania and the Netherlands have a long-standing cooperation that spans over 40 years. There are about 80 Dutch companies operating in Tanzania; 70 percent have invested in the agricultural sector, the majority of which are in the horticultural sector,” he noted.
TPHPA provides a number of certificates each year, and it takes a lot of time to write and sign each one by hand. Additionally, paper certificates are permanent records that cannot be changed if an input error is made or if the features of the export consignment change while the export is being processed.
Changes in cargo space, which occur often during ordinary export operations, may force the need to alter the number of goods to be shipped.
Because a paper certificate is included with a shipment when it is exported, it is challenging for port officials in an importing nation to pre-clear a shipment with a known history prior to its arrival, which causes unneeded delays at ports, even for regular goods.
