We need to act right away, we need not to delay. If we shilly-shally it is going to take us so long and we shall have to toil a lot,” remarked Ambassador Amina Salum Ali, the Zanzibar Minister for Trade, Industries and Marketing, on her arrival at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) from Biofach, a world organic exhibition held in Nuremburg – Germany from February 14th to 18th 2018.
“As a matter of fact this visit has shaped us so much. As from now I believe we shall move very fast in making organic agriculture a reality in Zanzibar. “said the minister, adding:“if we officially support organic agriculture, automatically we will be boosting the number of tourists coming to Zanzibar as it is more evident that more tourists prefer organic food to non-organic food.”
She explained that the government has seen the importance of fast tracking the organic agriculture subject, saying the most important item is the policy issue. “When this is finalized then we will be in a position to move speedily on this”, she noted.
Ambassador Amina further stressed that during their visit to Germany they discussed and reached consensus with four foreign companies working on organic agriculture in order to make it flourish. “I personally see a greater future of Zanzibar through organic agriculture.”
She also noted that both Zanzibar and Tanzania Mainland have a lot of potential crops that can create superior demand for organic agriculture from across the world. For this to happen, she said, it requires the people to have a frame of mind towards organic agriculture. Meanwhile, the Permanent
Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Industries and Marketing Mr. Juma Ali Juma, who accompanied the minister to the world organic exhibition in Germany asserted that the visit has vividly shown availability of a huge market for organic products globally.
“The market issue isn’t a problem anymore, there are lots of opportunities, yet we can still use our own organic products to manufacture medicine. There is everything for our producers, let’s go beyond by acting fast, as the money is here,” he remarked.
Crops grown organically in Zanzibar include, among others, all type of spices, cloves, cinnamon, cardamon, lemon grass, turmeric, black pepper and nutmeg.
The organic exhibition trip for Zanzibar policy makers was facilitated and financed by the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM) through Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiatives (EOA-I) and OTEA.
