Tanzania bans importation of day-old chicks with effect after July 30th 2022. The deputy Minister for Livestock and Fishery, Honorable Abdallah Ulega, said in a Poultry Stakeholders meeting held in Dodoma on 22nd July 2022 the Ministry will never issue import permits for day-old chicks after 30th July 2022.
A report titled Investment Opportunities in the Livestock Sub-sector that was published by the Tanzania Investment Center (TIC) shows that an average of 5.5 million hatching eggs and 1 million Day Old Parent Chicks are imported annually to produce a total of 25 million Day Old Chicks for commercial purposes.
The report goes further stating that the above figure is low compared to the current requirement of 60 million Day Old Chicks per year. This makes it difficult to predict sustainability of the bans of importation of day-old chicks in Tanzania.
In the meeting mentioned above, local poultry producers, Organia and Mkuza Chicks, had decried the rise in smuggled chicks sold at lower prices. They claimed that most incubators in the country are selling day-old chicks at an average price of Tshs 2,000 ($0.85), while the smuggled chicks sell at Tshs 1,200 ($0.5) per chick.
In 2016, Tanzania banned the importation of chicks and fresh poultry meat from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa and the US to protect local farmers. On October 31, 2017, government authorities in Arusha destroyed 6,400 chicks imported from Kenya through the Namanga border crossing. The ban was later lifted.
An overview of poultry sector in Tanzania
The poultry production system in Tanzania is of two types: traditional and commercial production. The current production is estimated at 58 million chicken (indigenous 23 million and commercial 35 million), and 1.2 million ducks.
Tanzania’s poultry sub-sector is mainly divided into a traditional and commercial production system. Traditional poultry kept are mainly chicken (90%) with the remaining small proportion being ducks, ostriches, pigeons and geese.
According to the Tanzania Poultry Breeders Association (TPBA), traditional chicken shows a high potential to improve food security, household income of rural people, particularly disadvantaged groups such as women and children.
“Despite traditional chicken being dominant it is still characterized by low production coefficients that are, high chick mortality, low annual egg production, low chick turnover and low annual off take,” the TPBA notes.
Low production in traditional chicken is attributed to low genetic potential of indigenous ecotype chicken in terms of growth rate and egg production, poor husbandry practices in terms of low and poor quality nutrition, lack of disease control measures, poor or unavailability of houses and lack of bio-security measures and lack of commercial orientation.
Commercial poultry production in Tanzania is still limited because of lack of farmers focused in poultry production, high capital investment, unorganized market of poultry and poultry products, unreliable supply of day old chicks, lack of reliable supply of quality poultry feeds, high veterinary and poultry feed costs and lack of poultry processing industries, the TPBA indicates.
Tanzania’s per capita consumption of poultry meat is estimated at about 15 kg per annum.
 Kessy Juma is the founder of Miamia Trading Company (miamiatz). He is a Techpreneur with roots in accountancy. He believes that any business is good as long it caters the right market using the right strategy. 
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Kessy Juma is the founder of Miamia Trading Company (miamiatz). He is a Techpreneur with roots in accountancy. He believes that any business is good as long it caters the right market using the right strategy.
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