Africa-Press – Tanzania. AS Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) is set to release ‘affordable’ port tariffs to make country’s ports more competitive, Mtwara Port charges will be lowest to enable more people opt using it, it has been learnt.
The move is intended to make the port in the country’s southern part attract more cargo from importers, exporters as well as farmers, and thus make it operate throughout the year, according to Port Manager Juma Kijavara.
The special tariffs arrangement for the port comes after the government expanded the facility and improved the infrastructures; hence, its capacity to handle cargo has more than doubled, while amount of cargo from the regions remained low.
Currently, the port has capacity to handle 1,000,000 tonnes of consignment, up from previous capacity of catering for 400,000 tonnes annually. However, it has still been receiving cargo under its capacity.
The port has always been in full operation during cashew nuts harvest seasons, with other types of cargo, mainly farm produce, transported through the roads to Dar es Salaam.
Eng Kijavara said yesterday that ongoing efforts are intended to attract other than cashew nuts cargo such as cassava and other crops, as well as cement from Dangote factory.
“We will soon introduce very friendly tariffs that would make traders afford to use the port instead of using the road,” Eng Kijavara stated.
Statistics indicate that water transport is much cheaper than road transport by almost a half, and heavy trucks have been blamed on damaging and reducing lifespan of the country’s highways.
In realising this, the government was gearing up to improve water and railway means of transport to relieve the roads from carrying heavy trucks.
Following huge investment in expanding and improving the Mtwara Port, President Samia Suluhu Hassan recently directed that all cashew nuts from the Southern regions of Lindi, Mtwara and Ruvuma be ferried through the port instead of using the roads to Dar es Salaam.
Following her directive, management of the TPA and the board of directors conducted meetings with Mtwara regional leaders and traders to chart a way forward.
The meetings focused on discussing means of making the Mtwara Port work throughout the year, unlike the current situation whereby the facility mostly depends on cashew nuts cargo, which come seasonally.
However, Eng Kijavara argued that upon the envisaged lowest charges, people would have no reasons to use roads.
“By having improved infrastructures, space, machines and other equipment, the port is well prepared to ensure that it contributes to up efficiency of the cashew nuts crop in southern regions,” Eng Kijavara insisted.
Mr Kijavara said several other directives by the President have been implemented including stay time for containers at the port and wharfage charges that have been reduced from 1 per cent to 0.5 per cent.
He said the management of the port has increased the number of free days of stay to 14 days for loaded containers and 21 days for empty containers.
“We have increased the grace period for containers at the port on both loaded and unloaded containers. Unloaded containers will now stay at the port for 21 days free from 14 at the past as the loaded one will stay for 14 days free from seven days,” he said.
He said container dwell time at the port was among the issues raised by transporters as among the challenges hindering them from using the Mtwara Port.
The exporters and importers had also complained of higher wharfage charges. According to the manager, the charges have been reduced from 1 per cent to 0.5 percent making it lowest in the country.
Mtwara Port is set to transport 250,000 tonnes of cashew nuts come 2021/2022 harvest season expected to start early September this year.
Over the weekend, Mtwara Port received the largest ever cargo vessel carrying 2,850 tonnes of Sulphur pesticides.
The consignment has been brought by the government as subsidy for cashew farmers in Southern Zone and other regions in the country.
The Yasemin vessel that docked at the port from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would sensitise and build confidence among traders on the capacity of the port to accommodate mega cargo vessels weighing 65,000 tonnes.
