Fruits 8.05 million tons. Vegetables 1.63 million tons. Spices 95,458 tons. Total horticulture production at 108.68% of plan, with 33.9% growth over five years. The horticultural sector has been quietly outperforming, year after year.
In a Hotuba dominated by the headline crops — cotton, cashew, coffee, sugar — horticulture is the quiet performer that has actually exceeded its targets. 9,781,937 tons of horticultural produce reached the market in 2025/26, against a target of approximately 9 million. The sector grew 33.9% over the past five years. And it has done so with markedly less public attention than the commodity crops it has now overtaken in total tonnage.
The composition
Tanzania’s horticulture production in 2025/26 broke down as follows: 8,051,887 tons of fruits, 1,634,591 tons of vegetables, and 95,458 tons of spices. Fruits dominate the volume — bananas, mangoes, pineapples, oranges, papayas, watermelons and others — while vegetables and spices represent smaller volumes but often higher per-kilogram prices.
Geographically, the horticultural production base is broader than that of any single commodity crop. The Northern zone contributes major shares of fresh vegetables, particularly through the Arusha-Meru-Kilimanjaro corridor. The Southern Highlands produce significant volumes of temperate fruits and vegetables. The Lake zone produces substantial volumes of bananas. The coastal zone contributes spices and tropical fruits. Each region’s contribution reflects its agro-ecological niche.
Why horticulture has grown
Three factors explain the steady horticultural growth over the past five years. The first is rising domestic demand. Tanzanian urban populations have grown, urban incomes have risen, and demand for fresh produce — particularly vegetables and fruit — has expanded faster than overall food demand. Domestic markets, especially in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza and Dodoma, have absorbed steadily larger volumes of horticultural produce.
The second factor is regional export growth. Horticultural products from Tanzania reach markets in Kenya, Comoros, Rwanda, Burundi, the DRC, and other neighbouring countries. The expansion of Tanzania’s border-market infrastructure (covered in Feature 6.2 of this editorial package) has facilitated this regional trade. Some Tanzanian horticulture also reaches Middle Eastern and European markets, particularly through air-freight channels for specific high-value products.
The third factor is product diversification. Smallholders have responded to demand growth by expanding the range of horticultural products they grow. A farmer who grew only maize and beans a decade ago might now grow tomatoes and onions for the urban market alongside those food crops. The aggregate effect of millions of such adjustments is a horticultural sector that has grown without a single dramatic intervention.
The TPHPA infrastructure
The Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticides Authority — TPHPA — provides the phytosanitary backbone that the horticultural sector requires for export. Horticultural products that cross borders need certification of pest-free status, residue compliance, and quality grading. TPHPA’s laboratory capacity has been expanded, with the headquarters laboratory in Arusha now internationally accredited. A new TPHPA laboratory in Njombe has had a consultant appointed for design work.
The phytosanitary infrastructure matters because it determines which export markets Tanzanian horticulture can access. A laboratory accredited to international standards can issue certifications that buyers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East accept. Without that accreditation, export markets are largely limited to the regional zone. The TPHPA upgrade is therefore directly enabling Tanzanian horticulture’s export growth potential.
Where horticulture sits in the Vision 2030 framework
Horticulture features prominently in the Investment Blue Print under preparation by the Agriculture Transformation Office. The reasons are commercial. Horticulture has higher per-hectare returns than most commodity crops. It supports more jobs per ton produced, particularly in post-harvest handling, packaging and cold-chain logistics. It is well-suited to women-led production systems, supporting the gender equity dimension of Vision 2030. And it is one of the most natural fits for the corridor framework, given its geographic concentration in specific agro-ecological zones.
The sector’s growth trajectory has not depended on a single flagship intervention. It has compounded from a thousand small decisions — farmers adding tomato rows, traders extending market routes, transporters adding refrigerated trucks, retailers expanding fresh-produce sections. The role of policy has been to enable this organic growth through phytosanitary infrastructure, market access, and supportive agronomic research.
“Sekta ya bustani ni miongoni mwa maeneo yenye fursa kubwa zaidi za uongezaji thamani na ajira; ukuaji wake umeendelea kuwa wa kasi tena bila kuhitaji uwezeshaji wa kifedha mkubwa kama mazao mengine.”
— Hon. Daniel Godfrey Chongolo (MB), Waziri wa Kilimo, Hotuba ya Bajeti FY 2026/2027 (editorial composite reflecting horticulture framing)
The horticulture story to come
If horticulture has grown 33.9% over five years without a single major flagship intervention, the question for the next five years is what becomes possible when the corridor framework, the BBT extension density, the upgraded laboratory infrastructure, and the digital input subsidy system explicitly target horticulture as a priority. The probable answer is that horticulture continues to outperform — and starts to do so visibly enough that the country talks about it the way it talks about cotton or cashew.
9.78 million tons. 108% of target. The data deserves more attention than it gets.