AfricaPress-Tanzania: COAST Region plans to start selling sesame using a warehouse receipt system to ensure reliable market and fair price to farmers.
Coast Regional Commissioner Evarist Ndikilo made a statement at a sesame stakeholders’ meeting in Kibaha Town a few days ago.
“Sesame crop means a lot to our region since it brings a lot of money and contributes a lot to our economy. We are meeting here today to put in place strategies for facilitating the selling of this crop through a warehouse receipt system which we expect to take place effective from mid- June”.
He said further that the region was among those regions which were large producers of sesame in the country, giving an example of last season of 2019/20 in which 7,327 tonnes worth 19.35bn/- were collected and sold through agricultural marketing cooperative societies (Amcos) in the region.
For this year 2020/21 he said estimations were to collect 13.25 tonnes, which is almost twice the harvest of the last season 2019/20.
Mr Ndikilo explained that it was their responsibility as regional leaders to ensure farmers were helped to get fair prices and sell their produce at the right time so that they could benefit from their work while contributing to the national economy.
He went on explaining that for this season auctions would be conducted electronically through a Tanzania mercantile exchange (TMX ) system and through a suggestion box.
“We will start this box where buyers will put their proposed prices after which we will proceed with the electronic system. Finally, we will compare prices and come up with one which will benefit our farmers.”
According to the RC, farmers will take their produce to Amcos warehouses.
The latter will then take it to main warehouses which have been registered by the Tanzania Warehouses Licensing Board (TWLB).
After that, the main warehouses will take reports of the collected sesame to TMX which will coordinate the auctions.
In other development, the RC took time to emphasise that farmers must be paid through their accounts.
He also directed the Weights and Measures Agency (WMA) to ensure weighing bridges were working properly to avoid unfairness in farmers’ payments.
Apart from that, the RC reminded Amcos leaders to ensure farmers were able to access packaging materials for raw sesame.
