From the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic: what the TAZARA–Lobito rail link could mean for Tanzania’s farmers

By Kilimokwanza.org Correspondent

DAR ES SALAAM, 29 October 2026 — Tanzania and Angola have agreed to link the Lobito Corridor on Africa’s Atlantic coast with the Dar es Salaam and Central Corridors on the Indian Ocean, President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced at State House on Thursday during the state visit of Angolan President João Lourenço — the first by an Angolan head of state in nearly four decades.

Under the plan, Angola’s Benguela Railway, the spine of the Lobito Corridor, would connect through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia to the Tanzania–Zambia Railway (TAZARA) and on to the Port of Dar es Salaam. If completed, it would create a single rail route across Southern and Central Africa, from Lobito in Angola to Dar es Salaam.

“Despite our good relations, economic and trade cooperation remains very limited,” President Samia said. The two governments also signed a Bilateral Air Services Agreement to open direct Dar es Salaam–Luanda flights and agreed to hold a joint trade and investment forum.

The deal joins two railways long seen as rivals. TAZARA was financed and built by China in the 1970s to carry Zambian copper out and fuel in, and is again being rebuilt with Chinese money. The Lobito Corridor, from Angola through the DRC to Zambia’s Copperbelt, is backed by the United States and the European Union and has often been described as Washington’s answer to Beijing in the region. Connecting the two would turn competing routes into a single network.

Angola has also invited Tanzania to invest in its Lobito oil refinery project. President Samia said the state-owned Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is assessing whether a partnership is viable.

The agreement is at an early stage. President Samia gave no completion date, no financing package has been announced, and the alignment of the missing connecting section has yet to be defined. For agriculture, however, the direction of travel matters. Kilimokwanza has assessed what the link could change for farmers and agribusinesses in each of Tanzania’s four Agricultural Growth Corridors (AGCOT).

Two railways, one gauge

Both railways already exist and both are being rebuilt. TAZARA runs 1,860 kilometres from Dar es Salaam through Morogoro, Iringa, Njombe, Mbeya and Songwe to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia. On 29 September 2025 in Beijing, China, Tanzania and Zambia signed a US$1.4 billion revitalisation agreement under a 30-year concession to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), with groundbreaking in Lusaka on 20 November 2025 and a three-year rehabilitation phase now under way.

On the Atlantic side, the US- and EU-backed Lobito Atlantic Railway is upgrading the Benguela line, while a new greenfield line of about 830 kilometres from Luacano in Angola to Chingola on Zambia’s Copperbelt is being procured. This week the Africa Finance Corporation selected a consortium led by Italy’s Webuild as preferred bidder for the 517-kilometre Zambian section.

Crucially, both systems use the same 1,067 mm Cape gauge, so wagons could in principle run through without transhipment — a significant technical advantage.

Source: TAZARA; Africa Finance Corporation.

Built for copper — can it carry crops?

Both lines were designed first and foremost for minerals, and copper and cobalt remain the anchor cargo on which their finances depend. Lobito’s backers expect the new line to carry agricultural goods too, but farm produce will have to compete with mining companies for wagons and train paths. That is why agriculture needs its own place in the timetable, rather than whatever capacity is left over.

Why it matters: freight costs eat into farm incomes

Most cargo between Tanzania, Zambia and the DRC moves by truck along the TANZAM Highway. Kilimokwanza estimates that logistics account for 35% to 45% of the landed value of agricultural imports and exports on these routes — a cost borne largely by farmers through higher input prices and lower farm-gate prices.

Bulky, low-value inputs suffer most. Kilimokwanza estimates that moving fertiliser, lime and machinery by rail rather than road could cut per-tonne-kilometre costs by roughly 40% to 60%:

Source: Kilimokwanza analysis (indicative estimates, not tariff quotations).

Lime for acid soils

The clearest gain is for soil health. By Kilimokwanza’s estimate, more than 4.7 million hectares of arable land in the Southern Highlands — the zone that grows more than 60% of Tanzania’s staple food — have acidic soils below pH 5.5, which blunt the response to fertiliser. Correcting this takes 2 to 4 tonnes of agricultural lime per hectare, yet trucking lime from crushers in Dodoma or Tanga to farms in Njombe, Mbeya and Songwe can cost more than the lime itself. Bulk lime delivered to TAZARA sidings would change that arithmetic.

New markets for grain, soya, dairy and avocados

The link would also open markets to the west. Food-deficit mining districts in the DRC’s Katanga region and import-dependent Angolan cities currently rely heavily on grain shipped in by sea.

• Maize and rice. Tanzania produced 11.93 million tonnes of maize in 2025/26, a 154% self-sufficiency ratio and a surplus of more than four million tonnes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Rail haulage from aggregation hubs at Mbeya and Makambako through Tunduma/Nakonde to Lubumbashi, Likasi and Kolwezi would let that surplus compete with imported grain.
• Soybeans and feed. With soya expanding across Morogoro, Iringa, Njombe, Ruvuma and Mbeya under the Tanzania Sustainable Soybean Initiative, there is scope to supply soybean meal to poultry and aquaculture feed mills in Zambia, the DRC and Angola.
• Dairy. Processors such as Iringa-based ASAS Dairies, with capacity of about 100,000 litres a day, could move long-life UHT milk and milk powder into Copperbelt and Katanga markets.
• Avocados. Tanzania exported 52,000 tonnes of avocados in 2025/26, passing its 2030 target of 40,000 tonnes four years early, according to the Cereals and Other Produce Regulatory Authority (COPRA). Exports now leave through Dar es Salaam or Mombasa. A rail-to-Lobito route would give exporters an Atlantic outlet; Kilimokwanza estimates it could cut sea transit to the Americas and West Africa by 8 to 12 days.

These flows sit within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan and the EAC Vision 2050, and an internal east–west trade route would reduce the region’s exposure to global shipping shocks and currency volatility.

What it means for each AGCOT corridor

The four corridors stand to gain very differently. Only the SAGCOT Corridor sits on TAZARA itself; the others would connect through Dar es Salaam or by road. Tanzania’s other railways also run on different gauges — the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) at 1,435 mm and the older central and northern lines at metre gauge — so their cargo would need transhipment before joining TAZARA.

Source: Kilimokwanza analysis.

SAGCOT — the frontline. With TAZARA running through Morogoro, Iringa, Njombe, Mbeya and Songwe to the Tunduma border, the Southern Highlands would feel every effect first: lower input costs, new grain and soya buyers to the west, and a stronger case for dry ports at Mbeya, Makambako and Tunduma. It is also where the risk is sharpest. If wagons and border systems are not ready, the corridor’s farmers will watch copper move by rail while their maize still travels by truck.

Mtwara — soya’s bridge to the west. Mtwara is prioritising diversification beyond cashew, and the Tanzania Sustainable Soybean Initiative targets more than 150,000 smallholders producing 250,000 tonnes of soybeans a year. Good road links from Ruvuma to TAZARA would give that soya a route to the feed mills of Zambia, the DRC and Angola. Without them, the corridor’s gains stay modest.

Central — oil, livestock and a second gateway. The Central Corridor’s sunflower drive, built on edible-oil import substitution, and its ambition to become a Great Lakes livestock hub both fit markets the link would open. The corridor also has its own westward route: the SGR, whose Tabora–Kigoma section had its foundation stone laid on 20 July 2026, leads towards Lake Tanganyika and the eastern DRC. Policymakers will need to plan the SGR and TAZARA as complementary routes, not competitors.

Northern — indirect but real. Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara and Tanga trade mainly north, with Kenya, and fly high-value horticulture to Europe. The link changes little for fresh produce here. It could, however, lower the cost of moving certified seed, processed foods and agro-inputs from northern firms to Southern and Central African buyers.

The gaps that must close first

The analysis is candid that a railway agreement alone will not move a single bag of maize. TAZARA is short of locomotives and wagons and several track sections need rehabilitation. Without enough rolling stock and reliable schedules, traders will stay on the road.

Source: Kilimokwanza analysis.

Border delays are a particular threat. If rail cargo queues at Tunduma or Kasumbalesa the way trucks do today, its speed advantage disappears. The answer is to pre-clear customs and phytosanitary checks at inland dry ports, linked through digital single-window systems.

What needs to happen

Kilimokwanza sees five priority actions for government, TAZARA and corridor partners:

1. Dedicated agricultural freight schedules: priority trains for seasonal maize, paddy and soya harvests and for fertiliser and lime, planned by TAZARA with the Ministry of Transport and AGCOT Centre.
2. Intermodal agribusiness hubs: dry ports with grain silos, cold storage and digital customs at Mbeya, Makambako and Tunduma.
3. Harmonised standards: faster alignment of sanitary and phytosanitary rules and seed certification across the EAC, SADC and AfCFTA.
4. Private rolling-stock investment: public–private partnership frameworks allowing agribusinesses and logistics firms to lease or supply their own wagons and reefer containers.
5. Corridor blueprints: building the link into the AGCOT corridor investment blueprints under Flagships 7 and 9 of the Agriculture Master Plan 2050, so that feeder roads connect producer AMCOS directly to rail sidings.

What next

The immediate milestones sit outside agriculture: TAZARA’s rehabilitation under its three-year programme, construction of the Luacano–Chingola line, and a technical decision on how and where the two networks will join. For farmers in Mbeya, Njombe and Songwe, the test will be simpler — whether a tonne of lime or a wagon of maize becomes cheaper to move. Planning the sidings, hubs, feeder roads and border systems now — across all four corridors — would let Tanzania’s agriculture benefit as soon as the trains can run.

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