TAHA Fresh Handling, Ltd.  (TFHL) was registered in September 2008. Its shareholding is comprised of 51% the Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA) with the balance of shares owned by  ”comprehensive” members of TAHA who are growers and shippers of horticultural produce, primarily cut roses and cuttings. The purpose of the company is to provide cost effective logistics solutions for the exporters of Tanzania. Initial financial and technical support for  the company was provided by USAID/Tanzania through the Tanzania Airfreight Program (TAP) which ended in November of 2009 and as such the period covered in this report represents the first year of unassisted technical operations. Core administrative expenses continue to be through met the Partner Fund of the Tanzania Agricultural Productivity Program (USAID-TAPP). Additional funding and assistance to TAHA Fresh has been provided by USAID/Tanzania and TAPP through the Financial Crisis Initiative (FCI). USAID-TAPP support includes the purchase of a refrigerated truck to allow increased control and reduced costs of the perishable truck routes; costs associated with obtaining a clearing and forwarding agent and establishment of a revolving credit fund of $250,000 for air freight costs in order to add increased working capital into the companies.

This past 18 months have been difficult for those involved in production and export of fresh produce from Tanzania due to the dramatic fall in market prices and demand resulting from the global financial crisis. The negative effects of this crisis continue to be felt by TAHA Fresh shipping customers with several exporting companies closing and shipment volumes reduced to levels which denied the viability of charter operations out of  Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). The effect was so strong as to essentially bankrupt the charter aircraft company MK Airlines who had been providing the 2-3 by weekly service out of JRO for over a year. Most efficient freighter aircraft require between 80 and 110 tons of cargo per flight, which equates to just under the entire monthly export production of Tanzania of 125 tons/month. MK was the only freighter who agreed to uplift partial loads from JRO. Hence, TAHA Fresh had an important role to play to find alternative cost effective routes which would lower the cost, improve the quality and provide for adequate space to uplift Tanzania produce efficiently.

The solution was for TAHA Fresh to oversee shipments from Kilimanjaro (JRO), Dar Es Salaam (DAR) and Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta (NBO) airports.  Since the last charter in October 2009, TFHL has been working with Tanzanian exporters to provide daily service to a dozen destinations for a yearly average of >>> / month (insert graph).

Mission:
To provide reliable, timely and competitive freight and other logistical services to shareholders and clients (clients means TAHA members & other non members – to be charged a higher fee than shareholders)

To assist TAHA producers in fulfilling their macroeconomic functions of job creation, currency and tax generation

Plans on how to achieve the mission were:

• Continuous and strong negotiations with freight carriers, freight forwarders and other significant components of overall freight cost
• Reduce handling charges
• Continue to increase competition with additional charter flights
• Encourage expansion of higher weight export products – i.e. vegetables to provide more optimal load mix
• To encourage more exportation of horticultural produce/other produce to reach 100,000Kg to capture a full flight rotation

Plans were:

• Collective bulk buying of inputs with mark up
• Freight consolidation (block buying of space) in Nairobi & Dar
• Collective trucking
• Capitalizing the company – obtaining bank financing, providing guarantees
• Freight Forwarding
• Freight Handling
• Bonded Warehouse
• Operating a cold storage facility
• Collective marketing..

Challenges so far:

• Slow collection of Receivables
• Low tonnage handled by TFHL
• Low Equity Financing
• Poor preferential payment terms from freight carriers/agents
• Lack of other generating income activities – bulk buying etc