An Action Plan for Developing Agricultural Input Markets in Tanzania

Table II. 11. Tanzania Fertilizer Imports (Data Obtained From COTECNA) (November 1, 2001 to
November 11, 2003)
for these 2 years is 191,717 tons of fertilizer imports—
averaging a little over 90,000 tpy. Supplies come in
mainly through Dar es Salaam, although some fertilizers
are also obtained from Mombassa and Nairobi in
Kenya. Types of fertilizers in use in Tanzania are shown
in Table II.12.
Import Costs—There are no import duties on fertilizers.
However, the other charges relate to wharfage,
port handling, bags, and bagging (in case products are
imported in bulk), value added tax (VAT) on these
charges, and charges of the inspection agency, the transport
bureau and the Tanzania Bureau of Standards. For
example, as shown in Table II.8 for an f.o.b. cost of
$170/ton from the Middle Eastern suppliers, the landed
cost into a Dar es Salaam warehouse would be about
$209.66/ton or about Tsh 11,000/50-kg bag.
Fertilizer Inspections
There are a number of agencies involved in inspections
and in ensuring quality control of the fertilizers
that are imported:
• COTECNA is an international agency that has an
exclusive arrangement with the Tanzania Revenue
Authority (TRA) for the pre-shipment inspections of
all commercial imports—quality, quantity, and price
check. All imports of more than $5,000 require a preshipment
inspection. A copy of the TRA Import Declaration
Form (IDF) that each importer has to com-
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plete prior to importing goes to COTECNA. The
importer also pays COTECNA 1.2% of the declared
value of the goods. Since COTECNA has 150 offices
in 50 countries and representatives in several
other countries, they carry out a check on both product
quality and prices charged. Of the total imports,
only 25% of the files are checked. Pre-shipment inspections
were meant to be a temporary phase. In
2004, COTECNA entered into an agreement with
TRA to do destination (border/port) inspections and
has the capability to screen 16 containers an hour
through machines.
• SGS, an international inspection agency, is mainly
involved with inspections at the port—quantity discharged
from the ship and visual inspections for condition
of the goods. The charge is $0.35/ton whether
the fertilizer shipment is in bulk or in bags. SGS also
supervises the bagging operation of the Tanzanian
Harbor Authority (THA) for their clients.
• Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) formulates national
standards through National Technical Committees
(NTC) and is also responsible for implementation
and quality assurance activities. This covers
engineering, electrical, mechanical, agri-inputs, textiles,
chemicals, and other commodities. TBS started
functioning in 1982 and now has over 500 standards
for various products. TBS collects and tests samples
from factories and imports in seven laboratories and
issues certificates. Many local manufacturers use the
TBS mark on their labels as an attestation of good