Alaska Tanzania: An Impact-Driven Agribusiness Company Supporting Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania

Jennifer Bash, Founder and CEO of Alaska Tanzania Industries Ltd, shares her assessment of the agriculture sector and gives an overview of AKTZ Industries Ltd, an innovative and impact-driven agribusiness company with the focus to support the works of smallholder farmers in Tanzania.

“Alaska Tanzania is an innovative and impact-driven agribusiness company with the focus to support the works of smallholder farmers in Tanzania. The agriculture sector in Tanzania, similar to other countries in Africa, is very segmented. The competitive advantage that we have is that we have managed to work in the entire value chain and we bring other partners into the value chain and we work together. The number of Tanzanians engaging in farming is more than 65% of the Tanzanian workforce. This is a sector that has very big potential to the development of the country’s economy. But it is still underdeveloped and its contribution to the country’s GDP is about 27%. If we as private sector and government invest in developing the agriculture sector in Tanzania, we can see huge potential not only in its contribution to the country’s economy, but also in reducing the rural urban migration. When you have the underdeveloped agriculture sector, it pushes people out of the rural areas to look for opportunities in urban areas. But, if the agriculture sector is well developed, then many people will see opportunities in the rural areas. The competitive advantage that we have is to be able to make the consumer have an understanding of where the food is coming from. Most people just shop for food without having that understanding of the how the food is grown, how it is processed, how it is transported. Working directly with smallholder farmers has given us an added advantage of giving that confidence to the consumer that these are actually agricultural products that are coming from the farms. We have worked with a number of farmers and at the moment we have over 8,000 farmers in the rice value chain. Apart from the for profit organization, which is Alaska Tanzania, our Mama Alaska Jamii NGO provides capacity building for the farmers’ communities. For most of the farmers the issue they are facing which results in the low productivity and bad quality of produce is due to lack of knowledge to follow good agricultural practices. They do not have access to quality inputs, they do not have access to formal financing, they do not have access to the market’s knowledge. By Alaska Tanzania engaging directly with the farmers, we pass on that message and empower the farmers to farm something that can actually be competitive in the market. So, it provides a big market advantage for them as well”, says Jennifer Bash.

ABOUT ALASKA TANZANIA: AKTZ Industries Ltd is a value-added business that sources, packs, brands and supplies agricultural produce to supermarkets, high-end hotels, restaurants, catering companies, and oil and gas companies. The company is Tanzanian-owned and started its business operations in January 2013. AKTZ was founded on the principles of deep understanding of the local business content, experience in product supply-chain management, hard work and dedication to support local farmers in Tanzania.

For more information, please visit: https://alaskatanzania.com.

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