In Arusha, at the foot of Mount Meru, Tanzania’s most export-ready agricultural regions united under a single corridor framework , with a mandate to build world-class cold chains, meet international phytosanitary standards, and transform East Africa’s premier horticultural gateway into a $100 billion agricultural economy’s northern front line.
If the Central Corridor is the spine of Tanzania’s agricultural transformation, the Northern Corridor is its shop window to the world.
This is where Tanzanian agriculture meets global markets. Where horticultural exports cross borders into Kenya, Uganda, and beyond through the East African Community (EAC) trade architecture. Where the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro overlooks some of Africa’s most productive farmland — and where, on February 10, 2026, the first consultation of the entire AGCOT nationwide sensitisation tour opened in Arusha, formally activating the Northern Agricultural Growth Corridor.
The regions of Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga, and Manyara. Four regions with a singular competitive advantage: proximity to international markets, established export infrastructure, and a concentration of high-value agricultural production that no other corridor in Tanzania can match. And on that Monday morning in Arusha, Regional Commissioners, District Commissioners, Regional and District Administrative Secretaries, Council Executive Directors, private sector leaders, farmer organisations, development partners, and technical consultants from PEMANDU Associates gathered to do something that had never been done before — place these four regions under a single, coordinated agricultural transformation framework aligned to the Agriculture Master Plan 2050.
The AGCOT era in northern Tanzania had begun.
THE OPENING SALVO: RC BURIANI SETS THE NATIONAL CONTEXT February 10, 2026 — Arusha
The Northern Corridor consultation was opened by Hon. Batilda Buriani, Regional Commissioner of Tanga, who immediately elevated the discussion from regional agriculture to national economic strategy — anchoring the corridor concept within the highest tier of Tanzanian policy.
“The agriculture sector has been identified as the transformative sector in the National Development Vision 2050 due to its significant contribution to employment, gross domestic product, and foreign exchange earnings. Agriculture contributes 26.5 percent of GDP and over 30 percent of employment nationwide.”
— Hon. Batilda Buriani, Regional Commissioner, Tanga
These were not ceremonial remarks. RC Buriani was drawing a direct line from the Northern Corridor’s unique assets — its horticultural exports, its cross-border trade, its proximity to international markets — to Tanzania’s most ambitious national objective: the transition to an upper-middle-income economy by 2050.
And then she issued a directive that left no room for delay.
RC Buriani instructed District Commissioners, Regional and District Administrative Secretaries, and Council Executive Directors from all four Northern Corridor regions — Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara, and Tanga — to immediately begin identifying and verifying suitable areas for productive agriculture, livestock, and fisheries within the corridor framework. Not next quarter. Not after further study. Immediately.
Her emphasis was unequivocal: the Northern Corridor must advance modern, high-productivity, climate-smart agriculture — and the work of mapping the corridor’s productive potential starts now.
WHY THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR MATTERS: TANZANIA’S EXPORT ENGINE
To understand why Arusha was chosen as the launch point for the entire nationwide consultation tour, you must understand what the Northern Corridor represents in Tanzania’s agricultural economy.
This is East Africa’s premier horticultural export zone. The regions of Arusha and Kilimanjaro are home to Tanzania’s largest concentration of commercial horticultural operations — producing avocados, green beans, flowers, fruits, and specialty vegetables for European, Middle Eastern, and Asian markets. The Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA), one of the most influential private sector actors in the country’s agricultural landscape, is headquartered here. Leading agricultural exporters who move Tanzanian produce into global supply chains operate from this corridor.
Tanga, with its Indian Ocean coastline, provides the corridor’s maritime export gateway — connecting northern production zones to international shipping routes. Manyara, with its vast rangelands and growing agricultural potential, adds livestock and emerging crop production to the corridor’s commodity portfolio.
Together, these four regions form a corridor that is uniquely positioned to deliver on the AMP 2050’s most outward-facing target: USD 20 billion in net agricultural exports.
But the Northern Corridor also carries Tanzania’s most demanding challenge: meeting international standards. Every avocado shipped to Europe, every green bean packed for a UK supermarket, every flower destined for the Dutch auction houses must meet exacting phytosanitary, food safety, and traceability standards. The gap between current capacity and international requirements is where the corridor strategy focuses its sharpest attention.
THE STRATEGIC ROADMAP: COLD CHAINS, STANDARDS, AND LIVESTOCK COMMERCIALISATION
The Arusha consultation consolidated the Northern Corridor’s strategic roadmap around three pillars that will define the corridor’s transformation trajectory:
Pillar One: Cold Chain Infrastructure at Scale
The Northern Corridor’s horticultural export potential is currently constrained by inadequate cold chain infrastructure. Post-harvest losses — estimated at 30 to 40 percent for perishable horticultural products across East Africa — represent billions of shillings in lost value every year. The corridor strategy targets large-scale deployment of cold storage facilities, refrigerated transport networks, and temperature-controlled aggregation centres linking farm-gate production to export logistics.
This is not about building a few cold rooms. This is about constructing an integrated cold chain ecosystem — from the smallholder collection point in Manyara to the cargo terminal at Kilimanjaro International Airport and the port facilities at Tanga — that can handle the volumes required to make Tanzania a dominant force in global horticultural trade.
Pillar Two: Export-Ready Aggregation and International Phytosanitary Compliance
The consultation placed particular emphasis on the establishment of aggregation systems that meet international phytosanitary standards — the non-negotiable entry requirements for accessing premium markets in Europe, the Gulf, and Asia. This includes GlobalG.A.P. certification systems, integrated pest management protocols, traceability infrastructure, and residue testing capacity.
Key private sector participants at the Arusha consultation — including representatives from TAHA and leading agricultural exporters — engaged directly with government leaders on the regulatory harmonisation and infrastructure investments needed to close the compliance gap. The objective: transform the Northern Corridor from a region that exports despite its infrastructure to one that exports because of it.
Pillar Three: Livestock Commercialisation
Beyond horticulture, the Northern Corridor encompasses significant livestock assets — particularly in Manyara and parts of Arusha — that remain largely outside commercial value chains. The corridor strategy targets the commercialisation of the livestock sector through improved genetics, feedlot systems, veterinary services, and structured market access. The Maasai Steppe and surrounding rangelands represent an enormous untapped opportunity for beef, dairy, and leather value chains that can serve both domestic and export markets.
THE ATO FRAMEWORK: CONNECTING PRODUCTION TO TRANSFORMATION
At the Arusha consultation, as at every subsequent session across the country, ATO Director Elizabeth Missokia provided the technical architecture connecting the corridor concept to national policy.
“Agricultural corridors are strategic zones that integrate production, processing, value addition, storage, transportation, and markets. Their objective is to accelerate the transformation of productive agriculture and support the country’s transition to an upper-middle-income economy by 2050.”
— Elizabeth Missokia, Director, Agriculture Transformation Office (ATO)
Missokia’s briefings at Arusha laid the groundwork for the entire national tour — explaining how the corridor concept, proven over fifteen years in the Southern Corridor (SAGCOT), would now be adapted to the distinct agro-ecological, economic, and logistical realities of the Northern Corridor. She contextualised AGCOT within the National Development Vision 2050 and detailed how corridors connect production areas with critical infrastructure — roads, railways, airports, ports, markets, factories, and financial services — to accelerate transformation across crops, livestock, and fisheries.
The briefing drew heavily on SAGCOT’s proven track record: USD 6.34 billion in cumulative investment mobilised (111% of target, five years ahead of schedule), over one million smallholder farmers empowered, 1.3 million hectares under climate-smart agriculture, and 253,000 jobs created. The message to Northern Corridor leaders was clear: this model works — and now it is yours to deploy.
INCLUSIVE GREEN GROWTH: THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR’S CLIMATE IMPERATIVE
The consultation confirmed that the Northern Corridor will deploy the Inclusive Green Growth (IGG) tool — a structured framework ensuring that production practices across the corridor are both climate-smart and internationally certifiable.
This is not an add-on. For the Northern Corridor, climate-smart certification is a market access requirement. European Union regulations on deforestation-free supply chains, carbon footprint disclosure, and sustainable sourcing are tightening every year. Northern Corridor producers who cannot demonstrate climate-smart practices will progressively lose access to the premium markets that define the corridor’s competitive advantage.
The IGG framework addresses this head-on — integrating sustainable land management, water-saving technologies, agricultural lime application, and agroforestry into the corridor’s production systems. The “Building a Better Tomorrow” (BBT) initiative targets the addition of 10,000 to 50,000 young agri-entrepreneurs over the current six-year cycle, with specific attention to women and youth in the Northern Corridor’s horticultural and livestock value chains.
Analysis presented at the consultations showed that implementing drip irrigation — a technology with particular relevance to the Northern Corridor’s semi-arid zones in Manyara and parts of Arusha — could deliver 8 percent more production while using 14 percent less water by 2030.
THE EAC DIMENSION: CROSS-BORDER TRADE AS A CORRIDOR MULTIPLIER
No other AGCOT corridor sits at the intersection of as many cross-border trade opportunities as the Northern Corridor.
Arusha is the headquarters of the East African Community (EAC). Kilimanjaro International Airport is East Africa’s busiest cargo hub for fresh produce exports. The Namanga border crossing connects Tanzania’s northern highlands directly to Kenya’s market of 55 million consumers. The Tanga corridor links to the port city’s maritime routes serving the Indian Ocean trade network.
The consultation recognised cross-border trade as a corridor multiplier — an advantage that, if properly leveraged through harmonised standards, streamlined border processes, and integrated logistics, could transform the Northern Corridor into East Africa’s agricultural trade hub. The AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) framework provides the continental architecture; the Northern Corridor provides the physical infrastructure and production base to exploit it.
PRIVATE SECTOR ENGAGEMENT: TAHA AND THE EXPORT COMMUNITY STEP FORWARD
The Arusha consultation marked one of the strongest private sector turnouts of the entire national tour. The Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA) — which represents the vast majority of Tanzania’s horticultural exporters — participated directly in the strategic discussions, alongside leading agricultural companies, processors, and financial institutions operating in the northern regions.
The AMP 2050 envisions the private sector contributing 70 percent of the investment required for national agricultural transformation. In the Northern Corridor, where commercial agriculture and export-oriented value chains are already more established than in any other corridor, the private sector is not just a partner — it is the primary engine.
The AGCOT Centre has been mandated to lead a dedicated private sector mobilisation campaign from March 2026, drawing on its extensive SAGCOT-era networks to bring additional commercial agriculture companies, processors, financial institutions, and input suppliers into the Northern Corridor framework. The consultations called for streamlined regulatory processes, harmonised local government levies, transparent land governance, and the accelerated development of Special Agro-Processing Zones (SAPZs) that provide investors with reliable infrastructure in “plug-and-play” environments.
THE SAGCOT FOUNDATION: PROOF THAT THE MODEL DELIVERS
The Northern Corridor does not start from zero. It starts from proof.
Between 2010 and 2024, the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) delivered results that exceeded every benchmark: USD 6.34 billion in cumulative investment, surpassing its target by 111 percent five years ahead of schedule. Of that, USD 5.02 billion from the public sector built backbone infrastructure — energy, roads, rural electrification — while USD 1.32 billion from the private sector went directly into agribusinesses, processing facilities, and value-chain development. SAGCOT empowered over one million smallholder farmers, introduced climate-smart agriculture across 1.3 million hectares, generated more than 253,000 jobs, and today accounts for 65 percent of all food production in Tanzania.
The Arusha consultation made this track record the foundation of everything that follows. The AGCOT Centre — the restructured successor to the SAGCOT Centre, officially launched in Dodoma on April 27–28, 2025 — now serves as the operational hub deploying the same proven methodology across the Northern Corridor.
As AGCOT Centre CEO Geoffrey Kirenga framed it:
“These consultations are not simply policy announcements — they represent the beginning of a generational shift. By unifying the Northern, Central, and Mtwara corridors under a single national framework coordinated by the ATO, Tanzania is moving from fragmented interventions to an integrated transformation strategy. The goal is clear: build a $100 billion agricultural economy that positions Tanzania as Africa’s breadbasket.”
— Geoffrey Kirenga, CEO, AGCOT Centre
THE PRESIDENTIAL MANDATE THAT STARTED IT ALL
Every element of the Northern Corridor strategy traces back to a single directive.
On March 17, 2023, during the Africa Food Systems Platform at the State House in Dar es Salaam, H.E. President Samia Suluhu Hassan issued the instruction that set the national expansion in motion:
“Expand the SAGCOT model to the rest of the country.”
— H.E. President Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania
On April 19, 2024, Hon. Hussein Bashe, Minister for Agriculture, led a national consultation endorsing the creation of tailored investment blueprints for the new strategic corridors: Northern, Central (Great Lakes), and Mtwara. The Arusha consultation on February 10, 2026, was the operational fulfilment of that presidential mandate for the Northern Corridor.
WHAT COMES NEXT: FROM ARUSHA TO IMPLEMENTATION
The Northern Corridor now enters accelerated implementation preparation. The immediate action plan:
Regional Commissioners and Administrative Secretaries across Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga, and Manyara have been tasked with identifying regional technical experts to support the development of corridor implementation plans at regional and district levels — a process that began the day the Arusha consultation ended.
Corridor Blueprints and Greenprints — the detailed implementation roadmaps and environmental sustainability frameworks being developed by PEMANDU Associates in coordination with ATO, AGRA, and the AGCOT Centre — are on track for completion by March 30, 2026.
The AGCOT Centre will deploy agile teams across the Northern Corridor to engage local stakeholders, mobilise private sector investment, and ensure transformation benefits reach all Tanzanians — with a specific focus on women- and youth-led agribusinesses.
The private sector mobilisation campaign, led by the AGCOT Centre, launches in the second week of March 2026.
A presentation to development partners is scheduled for March 15, 2026, led by the Ministry of Agriculture.
THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR’S PROMISE
The Northern Corridor is where Tanzania’s agricultural transformation meets the global marketplace.
It is where climate-smart avocados from Manyara will be packed to European Union standards, where Kilimanjaro’s horticultural bounty will move through world-class cold chains to premium buyers in London and Dubai, where Tanga’s port will ship processed agricultural products across the Indian Ocean, and where the rangelands of the Maasai Steppe will feed commercial livestock value chains that generate wealth for pastoralist communities.
It is where the SAGCOT model — proven, tested, and validated over fifteen years — will be adapted to the unique agro-ecological and commercial realities of northern Tanzania.
And it is where, on February 10, 2026, Tanzania’s most senior regional leaders stood together and declared that the work begins now.
“With the sub-national architecture now falling into place and corridor Blueprints nearing completion, AGCOT is set to deploy agile teams across these newly activated corridors. Tanzania is building the institutional foundations for a transformation that will quintuple our agricultural GDP, reshape our entire agricultural sector — crops, livestock, and fisheries — and ensure the benefits reach every Tanzanian, especially women and youth. Every stakeholder identified in this plan is called upon to play their part.”
— Geoffrey Kirenga, CEO, AGCOT Centre
The Northern Agricultural Growth Corridor is open.
The Northern Corridor consultation was conducted under the coordination of the Agriculture Transformation Office (ATO), in partnership with PO-RALG, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, the AGCOT Centre, AGRA, and PEMANDU Associates.