Meat lovers to dig deeper into their pocket as prices escalate drastically during this festive season

As Tanzanians are still worried over the sudden rise of retailed prices for cereal foodstuffs such as maize, beans and rice, meat prices have also risen drastically in recent days leaving meat lovers with no option but to dig deeper into their pockets to enjoy the delicious community during the Christmas and New Year 2023 festive season.

A spot survey by The Business Wiz found out the price of meat in most selling butcheries located within the suburbs of Dar es Salaam city have risen due to demand and supply constraints in the local market sending shock waves amongst consumers

A random survey carried out by The Business Wiz revealed that, a kilogram of a retailed mixed meat with bones is currently sold at an average retail price 10,500/- from the earlier 7,000/- sold a month ago being a 25 per cent increase.

Likewise, a kilogram of steak meat has plummeted within the said period and can now be bought at

12,000/- from the usual 10,000/- for a kilogram sold in most city butcheries in Dar es Salaam.

Interviewed traders in various butchery shops located at Gongo la Mboto, Temeke, Mwananyamala and Buguruni market centers in Da res Salaam region attributed the increased meat price rates to an increase of prices of cows currently at the Pugu Auction Market on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam city.

Traditionally it is a booming time for businesses as the scene is replicated across the leading city of downtown Dar es Salaam with 5.2 million people covering about 8.7 percent of the country’s total population according to 2022 Census.

When contacted for comments, one of the Market Masters Athumani Chilongo said that, for a couple of one month, “the business has changed following low supplies of cows from up-country regions to the main market place”.

He however noted that for those cows currently put on sale, their prices have increased tremendously and revealed that the other reasons for the meat price increases is due to huge exports of cow meat abroad to Middle East countries leaving the local market with little to suffice.

Statistics by Tanzania Meat Board (TMB) shows that, “Tanzania being the second leading with large numbers of cows in Africa had exported some 4,374 tonnes of meat worth over U$ 16 million to the Middle East countries during the past five months from July to November 2022”.

The East African country has slightly increased meat processing and exports with strategies being put in place to set foot in new markets, says TMB registrar Dr. Daniel Mushi in an exclusive interview.

He told The BusinessWiz that, “the country has explored meat markets in Qatar, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and far East countries such as Hong Kong, Vietnam and Comoros as well as the neighbouring Kenya adding that plans are underway to explore the Chinese market.

Apart from meat, the prices of dry beans, maize flour, Irish potatoes, and rice for cereals have also increased tremendously this time around, underlining the country’s depressed agricultural production that has been aggravated by climate change with droughts occurring more frequently.

The Director of Economic Statistics of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Daniel Masolwa, issued the data report recently in the country’s capital in Dodoma.

According to the report, the recent rise in food and non-food prices comes at a time when the country is grappling with a high inflation rate the overall increase in prices of goods and services owing to poor weather, the war in Ukraine and the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.