Sugar

Tanzania’s sugar annual demand is estimated at 710,000 tonnes in 2019 versus a local production of 439,100 tonnes in the same year. Sugarcane farming and processing in Tanzania is very limited and cannot meet the national demand and the gap is filled with sugar imports.

Nonetheless, since the privatization of Tanzania’s sugar estates in the 1990s, sugar production has steadily increased. Over the past five years, Tanzania’s sugar production increased by 74%, from 252,900 tonnes in 2015 to 439,100 tonnes in 2019.  

Sugar production is concentrated mainly in 3 regions: Morogoro, Kagera, and Kilimanjaro. At present, there are 4 large sugar estates in Tanzania: the Kilombero Sugar Company with a 40% market share, the Tanganyika Planting Company (34%), Kagera Sugar (17%), and Mtibwa Sugar Estates (9%).

In April 2020, the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) issued a notice inviting domestic and foreign investors to develop sugarcane and sugar processing plantations using the 20,000-ha farm in Kibuye in the Kigoma region in northwestern Tanzania.

And in July 2021, the Tanzania Revenues Authority (TRA) has waived the 15% import tax on sugar for industrial use, as part of the 2021-2021 National Budget efforts to improve the business environment in the country.

In his budget speech of May 2023, Tanzania’s agriculture Minister Hon. Hussein Bashe said that the production of sugar cane in the year 2023/2024 is expected to reach approximately 4,500,000 tons which will produce 465,000 tons of sugar.

Latest Update: 9th May 2023

Source: Bank of Tanzania (BoT), Tanzania Ministry of Agriculture, Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), Tanzania Revenues Authority (TRA).