Prime Minister denounces deceptive labels at Minjingu factor

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa yesterday denounced the labelling of Minjingu fertilizer as foreign manufactured, directing the plant management to immediately write an apology letter to President John Magufuli. He ordered the manufacturers to forthwith start tagging the farm inputs as Tanzanian. 

The Premier also directed the Minjingu Mines and Fertilizers to boost daily production of the farm input from 1,500 to 5,000 tonnes.

“Increased production is the only way to address the acute shortage of fertilizer in the country and control the prices,” charged the Premier, arguing that while a bag of domestically manufactured fertilizer sales at 55,000/-, imports go for as high as 65,000/- per bag.

He challenged the management of the plant, which is patched along the Dodoma Highway between Arusha and Manyara, to speedily expand the factory to meet the country’s demand for fertilizers at affordable prices. The Premier deplored as disservice to the country the labelling of the fertilizer bags ‘Made in Kenya,’ or ‘Made in Uganda’ and other countries to where the products are exported.

He charged, “This is totally unacceptable... if the product is made in Tanzania, it should be so labelled.” Mr Majaliwa said the factory, which employs 400 permanent staff can double employment opportunities through the facility expansion, machinery addition and widening the local market base with regular supplies and distribution.

Earlier, the Premier toured the quarries from where the raw materials are mined and the Rock Beneficiation Plant on the mines, which has the annual capacity of yielding 100,000 and converting naturally occurring Phosphate in powder form to the Beneficiated Rock Phosphate. Phosphates, according to the Minjingu Phosphate Director, Mr Tosky Hans, are among the three essential nutrients in crop production.

He said, “The Minjingu Rock Phosphate, owing to its unique composition, has proven to be beneficial to cash crops like coffee, tea, tobacco and sugarcane, especially in the acidic soils in large parts of Tanzania.” Responding to the labelling concerns, Mr Hans described it as a deliberate move to check counterfeits in the export markets.

“So, we decided to produce fertilizers for export and labelled the bags according to the countries to where the consignments are exported sold,” he said, however conceding to wrong doing. He promised to correct the mistake, immediately.

Minjingu currently exports the Beneficiated Rock Phosphate to South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. The mine recently established a 30,000 tonne Granulizer Plant that adds value through converting the BRP into a ready to use fertilizer.

The Minjingu phosphate deposit, located 106 kilometres from Arusha, along the Dodoma Highway, is of guanosedimentary origin, therefore biogenic in nature and is believed to have formed during the Pleistocene age from the remains and droppings of flamingo birds that inhabited the lake Manyara region millions of years ago.

Flamingo birds still inhabit the lake to date. The Prime Minister also toured a local Sugar Factory in Babati before heading to Haydom and Mbulu today and Katesh in Hanang’ tomorrow.

The statutory mining company, Minjingu Phosphate Company (MIPCO) was established under the auspices of the Tanzania State Mining Corporation (STAMICO).

The firm’s key roles were to mine and process the Minjingu Phosphate Rock (MPR) and supply to Tanzania Fertilizer company (TFC) factory in Tanga for further processing into chemical phosphate fertilizers like Single Super Phosphates (SSP) and Triple Super Phosphates (TSP).