Committee against informal agricultural exports

Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture says it will engage government to put in place systems to curb smuggling of agricultural commodities such as coffee and legumes to Tanzania through Karonga and Chitipa districts.

Committee chairperson Ulemu Chilapondwa said this on Saturday in Mzuzu after meeting coffee and livestock farmers from Rumphi and Mzimba districts under the Agricultural Commercialisation Project.

He said that the country’s borders remain porous coupled with poor systems.

“Let all the security agencies in the country curb the illegal exports of agriculture produce because it is denying our people profits and foreign exchange,” said Chilapondwa.

One of the committee members William Susuwele- Banda, proposed a ban on exports of agricultural commodities, including maize, rice and legumes.

“Apart from losing out on foreign exchange, we are creating severe food shortages for the approaching lean period,” he said.

Speaking in an interview, one of the affected farmers from Phoka Coffee Cooperative in Rumphi Wifred Mziba said illegal exports are killing the coffee industry, adding that most of the coffee grown in the Northern Region is smuggled to Tanzania.

He said if the illegal exports are controlled, the cooperative can double its production from 650 000 kilogrammes per year.

Another farmer from Mzuzu Cooperative, Sellina Nyirenda, decried exports of maize husks to Tanzania, saying it has resulted in scarcity of livestock feed.