By Florence Mugarula

It is now all smiles for Tanzanian farmers after a fertiliser production company ‘YARA Tanzania Limited’ announced between 35 and 40 per cent reduction of fertiliser transportation cost following the launching of railway transport services on Tuesday.

Speaking during the launching of fertiliser rail transportation from Dar es Salaam to upcountry, YARA Director General, Mr Alexandre Macedo said inland transport cost has been contributing to the increase of fertiliser prices in various regions.

He said transporting fertiliser from factories in Europe to Dar es Salaam port cost only 40 US dollar per tonne, but it cost 100 US dollar to transport the same from Dar es Salaam to Tabora by using road transport.

Mr Macedo said with rail transport, the total operation cost is cheaper. He said the company has responded to the government call to reduce fertiliser price and enable farmers across the country to engage in productive agriculture.

“We are doing everything in our powers to respond to the government request to reduce fertiliser prices, it has been very expensive to transport fertiliser from Dar es Salaam to other regions by road,” he said. He added that another challenging factor is the big number of intermediate, which include middlemen operations. He said the company is working closely with the government to solve the problem.

“We are working with the government to see how we can address this problem together, we need to take fertiliser to farmers at affordable price,” he said. According to Mr Macedo, his company has entered a contract with Tanzania Railway Limited (TRL) and that it can now transport between 800 and 1000 tonnes of fertiliser from Dar es Salaam to various regions at affordable price and on time. The company plans to transport at least 10,000 tonnes of fertiliser by using railway line per month.

He said YARA is satisfied with TRL services and that it initially tested the system by transporting a test cargo and found out to be not only fast, product safety guaranteed but also the products arrived in good condition. On October 14, this year, YARA loaded fertiliser consignment to 20 TRL wagons.

Source: All Africa

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.