Tanzanian seaweed farmer sees 'gold' at import expo

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania — A stone's throw away from the Indian Ocean coastline in Zanzibar, the soft-spoken Saphia Hashim Makame is busy selling seaweed products in her tiny shop in Bweleo.

Saphia, a 58-year-old mother of six children, has been a seaweed farmer since 1998. She could hardly contain her excitement when she learned that seaweed products will be exhibited at the 6th China International Import Expo, or CIIE, for the first time. The CIIE will be held in Shanghai from Nov 5 to 10.

"I am overjoyed over this good news. The expo will definitely open doors for seaweed products to the huge Chinese market," she said as she arranged seaweed products in her shop.

Products she makes from seaweed include soap, spices, hair oil, lip balm, shampoo, shower gel, body lotion, cakes, juices and buns.

"With seaweed products exhibited at the expo, my journey of finding global markets has just begun," Saphia said with a broad smile, adding that she currently sells her products to some institutions and customers in Tanzania's port city of Dar es Salaam.

Saphia started making various products from seaweed in 2006 after she was trained by experts from the Philippines and Indonesia in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Dar es Salaam.

"I get between 1.5 million Tanzanian shillings ($600) and 2 million Tanzanian shillings a month. I have built my own decent house, I pay for my children's medical bills and I have also paid fees for my children to the university level without borrowing a single cent from anybody," Saphia said.

Looking with anticipation at the Chinese market for seaweed products, Saphia said she looks forward to creating a huge production structure because "seaweed is like gold and diamonds".

'High expectations'

"The 6th CIIE is an entry point for Tanzania's Zanzibar seaweed products," Aboud Suleiman Jumbe, principal secretary in Zanzibar's Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries, said.

"When we look at the Shanghai expo, we look at it with extremely high expectations," Jumbe said, expressing hope that the Shanghai expo will help propel forward Zanzibar's seaweed market, especially the blue economy.

"Currently, we have 23,000 seaweed farmers in Zanzibar and 90 percent of them are women," said Jumbe, adding that the farmers are cultivating mainly two types of seaweed.

The Chinese government and China's private sector have shown interest in coming to Zanzibar and developing new varieties of seaweeds that are used for various economic, medicinal and biotech purposes in China and other parts of the world, he said.

Xinhua