Tanzania Courts European Investors With Ports, Minerals and Agriculture

FTZ News: Tanzania put its investment pitch in front of Dutch and EU officials in The Hague, the first day of the Dutch stop on an EU tour. TanzaniaInvest reported it on Oct. 6. About 90 businesses were in the room. Kitila Mkumbo, minister of state in the president’s office for planning and investment, led the delegation. David Silinde, deputy agriculture minister, was with him. Earlier stops were Helsinki and Cesena. Visits in Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges, and a field stop in Belgium, were set for the same day.

Virginie de Ruyt, who runs the Eastern and Central Africa unit at the Commission’s international-partnerships department, was on the European side. So was Frederieke Quispel, director of the Africa department at the Dutch foreign ministry. Caroline Chipeta, Tanzania’s ambassador in The Hague, was there. George Mukono, investment-promotion director at the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority, and Farida Mohamed, of the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority, made the zone case.

The goods they talked about were coffee, cashew, critical minerals and ports. The Netherlands is Tanzania’s biggest EU investor. EU grants for 2021–2027 are put at more than €900 million. Dar es Salaam handles about 95 percent of the country’s international trade and moved more than 30 million tonnes last year. About 40 percent of that serves landlocked neighbors. Other ports named were Bagamoyo, billed as a public-private project and the largest in East Africa, plus Mwambani, Tanga and Mtwara. A standard-gauge line of about 2,500 kilometers is planned, from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza and Kigoma.

Coffee output was 90,000 tonnes in 2023/24. The EU takes about 40 percent of Tanzania’s coffee exports. Less than 10 percent of the cashew crop is processed at home. On minerals, the pitch was large proven graphite reserves at Mahenge, Nachingwea and Lindi, the Kabanga nickel deposit, and rare earths at Ngualla. The state wants at least 16 percent free carried interest in mining projects. Mining was 10.3 percent of GDP in 2025 and more than half of export earnings.

Zanzibar’s list had a Mwambao railway estimated at $300 million to $400 million, and the Mangapwani hub, about $300 million on more than 933 hectares. Farm export earnings were $3.73 billion in 2024/25. The 2030 target is $6 billion. The story does not say anyone signed./.