Tanzania has set its sights on a future without dependence on imported edible oil. In a high-level inter-ministerial working session held on February 17, 2026, at Mtumba, Dodoma, senior government officials, regulators, private sector actors, and academic institutions converged on a shared ambition: make Tanzania not just self-sufficient in edible oil, but a net exporter by 2035.

The meeting, jointly convened by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Gerald Mweli, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ambassador Waziri Salum, brought together a formidable coalition of stakeholders — including the Cereals and Other Produce Regulatory Authority (COPRA), the Agricultural Growth Corridors of Tanzania (AGCOT), the Agricultural Market Development Trust (AMDT), Uchumi Institute, and the University of Dar es Salaam — all tasked with developing a National Edible Oil Strategy anchored in the cultivation of sunflower and palm oil.

The Scale of the Challenge

Tanzania currently imports tens of thousands of tonnes of edible oil each year, a drain on foreign exchange reserves and a vulnerability in the national food system. The economic case for reversing this trend is compelling: edible oil is a daily staple in Tanzanian households, and its price is acutely sensitive to global commodity markets and exchange rate fluctuations.

PS Mweli was direct in his assessment. Tanzania, he argued, possesses both the land and the agro-climatic conditions needed to achieve full self-sufficiency. Central to his vision is an expansion of sunflower cultivation from the current 1.2 million hectares to approximately 2 million hectares — a 67 per cent increase that would substantially boost the supply of raw material for domestic oil pressing.

Palm Oil — The Commercial Imperative

Ambassador Waziri Salum turned his attention to palm oil — a crop with enormous productive potential but one that has historically been underutilised in Tanzania. His message to technical experts was unambiguous: palm cultivation must be driven on a commercial basis. Without commercial discipline — access to certified seedlings, contract farming, processing investment, and reliable off-take arrangements — the crop will fail to deliver at scale.

The industry’s medium-term target is ambitious: produce 1.4 million metric tonnes of edible oil by 2035. Achieving that figure will require sustained investment in both primary production and value addition — oil mills, storage infrastructure, and efficient supply chains connecting farms to consumers.

COPRA’s Strategy and the Road to 2035

It fell to Irene Mlola, Director General of COPRA, to present the draft National Edible Oil Strategy to the assembled stakeholders. Her presentation laid out both the opportunity and the conditions required for success.

If the strategy is implemented with rigour — strengthening policy frameworks, updating regulatory standards, and scaling up the development of both palm oil and sunflower value chains — the results could be transformative. Between 2030 and 2035, Tanzania is expected to eliminate its need to import approximately 339,000 metric tonnes of edible oil annually, translating into foreign exchange savings of around $200 million per year.

But the ambition does not stop at import substitution. Mlola outlined a vision in which Tanzania becomes a regional supplier of edible oil, generating additional export volumes of approximately 406,000 metric tonnes annually — earning the country more than $1.37 billion in export revenues. The shift from net importer to net exporter would represent one of the most significant structural transformations in Tanzania’s agricultural economy in decades.

Productivity — the Central Bottleneck

Realising this vision hinges in large part on solving a persistent productivity challenge. Tanzania’s average sunflower yield currently stands at approximately one metric tonne per hectare — a figure that sits well below regional and global benchmarks for well-managed production systems.

The Ministry of Agriculture has set a clear target: raise average yields to between two and four metric tonnes per hectare by 2030. Achieving this will require a combination of improved seed varieties, better access to agro-inputs, irrigation where feasible, and sustained agronomic extension support to smallholder farmers who remain the backbone of sunflower production in Tanzania.

A Coalition for Change

The composition of the February 17 meeting reflects the multi-sector nature of the challenge. AGCOT’s presence underscores the role that agricultural corridor development infrastructure — aggregation centres, input supply networks, and farmer-facing advisory services — will play in delivering on the strategy’s targets.

The inclusion of the University of Dar es Salaam signals a recognition that research and innovation will be essential: developing higher-yielding varieties adapted to Tanzanian soils and climates, refining post-harvest and processing technologies, and building the human capital base needed to sustain the industry’s growth.

Private sector actors — AMDT and Uchumi Institute — bring market intelligence and investment perspectives that will be critical to ensuring the strategy generates not just production volumes, but bankable business models for farmers, aggregators, and processors alike.

Outlook

The February 17 working session marks an important policy moment, but the harder work lies ahead. The National Edible Oil Strategy will need to be finalised, adopted, and resourced — with clear implementation responsibilities, monitoring frameworks, and budget allocations distributed across government ministries, regulatory bodies, and development partners.

What is already clear is that Tanzania’s leadership has made a political commitment to ending the country’s dependence on imported edible oil. The question now is whether the institutional machinery — policy, regulation, finance, extension, and private sector engagement — can be aligned quickly and effectively enough to deliver on a timeline that matters.

If it can, the prize is substantial: cheaper oil for Tanzanian consumers, higher incomes for smallholder farmers, foreign exchange savings for the national treasury, and a new chapter for Tanzania’s role in regional agricultural trade.