Determinants and performance of sugar export in Tanzania.

Tanzania Ministries as well as sugar board of Tanzania were not aware of recent sugar markets trends. This study attempted to examine performance of Tanzania sugar exports and estimate sugar exports supply function for 1977-2010 periods. To estimate annual sugar growth rates for quantities of sugar produced, consumed, imported and exported, geometric average was used by means of detailed data from country statistics through NBS, FAO and ITC computations. Multivariate regression model was used to estimate supply function. The results of the estimation revealed that, for die period of 33 years, annual growth rates of Tanzania sugar production and consumption was 3% and 7% respectively. Since, domestic factories were 83.1% productive efficient, indicating that there remains considerable scope to increase production hence export by improving technical and allocative efficiency of existing idle resources. Thus, sugar export price has positive significant relationship while consumer price index has negative relationship with sugar exports supply. Quantity of domestic product of sugar, exchange rate and GDP were not statistically significant in explaining their impact on sugar exports supply. Moreover, Tanzania was a net exporter of molasses which was extracted or refined from sugar and was a net importer of sugar confectionery by product. Thus, these were major sugar by-products which have significant economic implications, whereby, the country was losing from sugar confectionery and gaining significantly from molasses. It is recommended that, production of sugar should increase significantly so as to satisfy domestic and foreign markets. Key words: Export performance, supply, growth rate, efficiency, Tanzania