We should eat more meat, says agro minister

DESPITE having livestock in abundance, Tanzanians apparently don’t eat enough meat - an average of just 12 kilograms per person annually, which is far lower than the 50kg recommended by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). 
Official statistics show that the country has the third largest livestock population on the African continent, comprising 25 million cattle - 98 per cent of which are indigenous breeds -16.7 million goats, 8 million sheep, 2.4 million pigs, and 36 million chickens.
But according to the Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Charles Tizeba, Tanzanians as a people consume less red or white meat than they should be – given the above-cited stats. Even the people of neighbouring Kenya, who have less livestock at their disposal, eat more meat - 14kg per person, annual average.
Tizeba, speaking at the launch of a workshop for district agricultural officers in Dodoma yesterday, described the situation as a national nutritional concern.
He said it calls for a sustained public sensitisation campaign on the need to eat more meat, coupled with heavy investment in the local meat-processing industry so that the product can also be easily accessed by communities that do not traditionally keep animals.
Even in communities that undertake animal husbandry as a key economic activity, the consumption of meat is still minimal, the minister asserted.
He argued that if local entrepreneurs decide to invest in meat products, produced and distributed all over the country at reasonable prices, the consumption figures and nutritional status of the wananchi in general will change tremendously.
“There is an urgent need to develop the meat industry as a whole, so as to boost its consumption locally and for export too,” he said.
Citing more official statistics, Tizeba said in the 2015/16 financial year, a total of 1,470,805 cattle, 1,161,840 goats and 253,243 sheep were sold in the country, producing 648,810 tonnes of meat - 323,775 of beef, 129,292 of mutton, 91,451of pork and 104,292 of chicken – for sale.
However, 99 per cent of this produce was sold in the local market, with a measly one per cent exported. According to the minister, these figures prove that local consumption remains minimal and export is almost non-existent.
Breaking down the meat export figures for 2015/16, he said just 2,356.62 tonnes of the product was ferried out the whole year; 203.73 of beef, 1,216.24 of mutton, and 612 of donkey meat. The export markets were Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Vietnam, and Malawi.
According to Tizeba, even mostly-desert Egypt and United Arab Emirates are far ahead of Tanzania in terms of meat production and its consequent contribution to national gross domestic product (GDP).