Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA Port Authority (TPA) has insisted that everything is in line for the cashew nut shipment process to take off at Mtwara Port, starting with this year’s crop trade period as per government’s directives.
Speaking here yesterday, TPA Director General Eric Hamissi said the government has taken all the measures required, including reviewing and setting affordable port tariffs to attract cargo ships at the deep water port.
Among the steps is the reduction of all port charges by 30 per cent for Mtwara in order to attract more cargo from importers and exporters.
“About the port tariffs, we have taken various measures, including reducing charges such as wharfage charges that have been reduced from 1 per cent to 0.5 per cent for Mtwara Port to attract more cargo from exporters and importers,” he said.
Apart from reducing wharfage charges, TPA has also extended dwell time for containers at the port, where the containers will stay for free during the cashew nut trading season.
“Normally container dwell time at the port is 14 days, but we have decided that all the containers will stay at the port of Mtwara for the whole of this cashew trading period for free, not even a shilling will be charged,” he said.
Mr Hamissi was speaking after a meeting with cashew nut traders here in Mtwara. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, who reaffirmed the government’s stand to transport the cashew nuts through Mtwara Port starting this season.
He said the government through TPA is making various efforts to ensure the cashew shipment process at Mtwara port takes off as directed by the government to ensure all the cashew nuts from Lindi, Mtwara and Ruvuma are transported via Mtwara Port.
He said the measures taken by the government through TPA aim at ensuring business people afford port transportation charges as well as ensuring the cashew growers acquire better prices for their cashew nuts.
“We have met with buyers to tell them measures taken by the government to ensure they conduct their business with confidence and should not worry about the transportation issues but compete fairly for farmers to acquire better prices,” he said.
He said TPA is currently communicating with Goldstar Shipping Company to bring their ship to Mtwara Port. The shipping company, according to Mr Bashe, will bring over 6000 containers.
Based on the move, Mr Bashe urged cashew growers to continue trading their produce at the ongoing auctions to enable buyers acquire enough load.
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