IRINGA, Tanzania — In the cool, rolling highlands of Iringa, where mist often clings to the tea estates and maize fields, a quiet but radical financial and logistical engineering project has just entered its execution phase. For decades, the narrative of African agriculture has been one of immense potential stymied by fragmented value chains. on November 28, 2025, about, 14 institutions signed a document that intends to bury that narrative for good.
The launch of the Iringa Soybean Commodity Compact is not a typical development aid project. It is a commercial engine. The agreement binds government regulators, private banks, Chinese multinationals, and local cooperatives into a single, execution-focused unit. Their immediate target: activating a TZS 2.3 billion (approx. USD 900,000) input pipeline to secure 2,500 metric tons of soybean offtake for the 2025/26 season.
While the tonnage is modest, the implications are seismic. This “Compact” serves as the operational blueprint for Tanzania’s Vision 2050—a strategy to transform the country from a net importer of soy into a major global supplier, with eyes firmly fixed on both domestic industrialization and the voracious markets of Asia.
The Architecture of Execution
“We are moving from potential to transaction,” says Geoffrey Kirenga, CEO of the AGCOT Centre, the body coordinating the initiative. For years, Tanzania has imported approximately 300,000 tons of soybeans annually to feed its poultry and livestock sectors, despite possessing ideal growing conditions in the Southern Highlands. Domestic production has languished between 7,000 and 20,000 tons, a gap Kirenga aims to close with an ambitious target of 2 million tons by 2050.
The Compact creates a “closed-loop” system that de-risks the entire process for everyone involved.
The Financiers
The Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) provides the liquidity for seeds and fertilizers—not as cash to farmers, but as direct payments to suppliers.
The Guarantors
The PASS Trust, backed by a recent USD 4.8 million partnership with the Norwegian Embassy, provides a Green Growth Guarantee covering up to 80% of the credit risk. This allows commercial banks to lend to cooperatives they would typically avoid.
The Aggregators
The Iringa Farmers Cooperative Union (IFCU) mobilizes farmers, ensuring that inputs reach the soil and harvests reach the warehouse.
“We’re not just providing access to inputs,” explains Yohane Kaduma, CEO of PASS Trust. “We’re building complete financial inclusion—creating an ecosystem where farmers can thrive.”
The China Connection and Local Industry
The Compact is fueled by a dual-engine market demand that highlights Tanzania’s shifting geopolitical position.
On one side is Shafa Agro Ltd, an Iringa-based agribusiness powerhouse. With state-of-the-art milling and dairy facilities in Kidamali, Shafa Agro represents Tanzania’s domestic hunger for protein. Currently reliant on imported soy cake for animal feed, Shafa has committed to purchasing the bulk of the Compact’s output, driving import substitution at the local level.
On the other side stands Longping Agriscience, a subsidiary of China’s CITIC Group. As Beijing seeks to diversify its soy supply chains away from the Americas, Tanzania has emerged as a strategic partner. Longping is not merely a buyer—they are investing in seed production centers and have expressed ambitions to develop up to 50,000 hectares of farmland.
This mix of local industrial demand and transnational export appetite provides the price stability farmers need to switch from low-value maize to high-value soy.
Fixing the Soil and the Mindset
The execution of this deal ultimately happens on the farm. The Southern Highlands, while fertile, suffer from chronic soil acidity—a legacy of decades of fertilizer misuse.
Farm for the Future (FFF), a commercial farm and training center in Ilula, serves as the technical anchor. Led by Osmund Ueland, FFF runs the “Children’s Farm” and Agronomic for Community Empowerment (ACE) programs, which are critical for shaping the next generation of farmers.
“We’re proving that a hand hoe can be replaced by innovation,” Ueland notes.
By demonstrating the use of agricultural lime to neutralize soil acidity, FFF and partners such as Nafaka Kilimo have shown that yields can jump from 30 to 45 bags per acre, transforming subsistence plots into profitable enterprises.
The Watchdog
Overseeing this complex web is COPRA (Cereals and Other Produce Regulatory Authority). In a region often plagued by side-selling—where farmers break contracts to sell to middlemen—COPRA’s role is to enforce discipline in the market system.
Under Director General Irene Mlola, the authority conducts rigorous stock assessments and issues the export permits required by companies like Longping, ensuring that domestic food security is not jeopardized in the rush to export.
A Model for the Continent?
As trucks begin to roll into the aggregation centers of Kilolo and Iringa this season, the stakes are high. If the Iringa Soybean Compact succeeds, it validates the AGCOT model—one that shifts from vague “corridors of growth” to hard-nosed, contract-based agricultural execution.
For the 14 partners gathered in Iringa, the TZS 2.3 billion pipeline is just the opening ante. They are betting that by aligning the bank vault, the regulatory pen, and the tractor wheel, they can finally transform Tanzania’s agricultural “potential” into a harvest the world can buy.