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DITF changed for our benefit?
2006-07-03 08:56:51
By Rayner Ngonji
The much-cherished Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF), an annual business hive, bears its roots in Saba Saba, a political acronym.
This is the day when the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), the predecessor of CCM was born in 1954.
It used to be a very exciting day with all ululations and hullabaloos. There were two reasons for observing the event that way.
It was the day of commemorating the beginning of political struggles to nationalism, as well as a yardstick adopted by peasants and farmers gauge on how much they had adhered to agricultural and extension officers pieces of advice.
They displayed their harvests in pavilions for the whole week. Winners in every production sector were handsomely awarded as a motivation for more quality products and bumper harvests the following year.
The show was basically an agricultural dominant as that was the basis of the event.
The festivity in those days was really live as people from the villages were incorporated in displaying their agricultural produce and handicraft skills such as mats and basket making.
There was little to put on display from the industries because of foreign exchange constraints, and very few industries were put in operation and performed below their set capacity.
But as years went by, this scenario gradually changed particularly after the introduction of trade liberalisation where competitive and quality became key components and catalyst in production with a view to attracting as many customers as possible.
Products of display changed from the predominant and traditional agriculture to a variety ranging from goods to live animals such as the chimpanzees, Lions and other Mammals including Snakes which attracted the sight of many visitors instead of being feared.
Different foreign industries flooded the market during the fair, with a variety of products subsequently creating an atmosphere of choice for the would be customers.
Since the transformation of the fair, business activity was not confined to industrial products alone, but also other fields such as health campaigns like the anti-HIV/Aids which in the past two decades or ago did not feature, are now part and parcel of the exercise.
But, what is more exciting in the whole arena right now compared to the previous years is the business activity.
When you visit the Mwalimu Nyerere International Trade Fair ground along Kilwa road, you would be convinced that you are in business zone.
The huge advert on the main gate \’buy Tanzanian build Tanzania tells it all.
Contrary to those days where an influx of people used to feature on climax of the event, the current ins and outs of customers throughout the week proves that there is drastic change and the fair is winning acclamation as days and years go by.
People flock to the fair grounds not because of the low prices but the variety of goods they have been provided with to make a choice in.
Not necessarily all products could be good to win customers but the fact that they are in abundance provides a very good opportunity for the customers to make a choice according to ones financial ability.
However, what is important here, is for manufacturers to improve the quality of local products to enable them swim in the highly competitive market.
Deliberate moves should be mounted to improve the products in an attempt to win as many customers as possible beyond the borders.
Some few years back I visited one of the tea factories in Mufindi District, Iringa region called ’’Stone Valley Tea factor’’.
At the end of the visit my colleagues and were presented with packets of first grade tea which according to the authorities was meant for export.
This was really an exceptional product though I came to realise that after arriving home.
The flavour and packaging marched with the international standard demands. That is what all local productive companies should strive at in our bid to win the foreign market.
Failure to that, we might lose not only the foreign customers but also the locals in the wake of flooding contra-band products.
The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing should embark on deliberate moves to encounter fake products which are now dominating the local market with their throw away prices, if at all, we are to restore our decades lost glory.
ngonji@guardian.co.tz
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