Agency wages war on suspicious weighing methods

TANZANIA Weight and Measures Agency has continued with their exercise of conducting impromptu visits to cashew nut trade areas to control unscrupulous traders. The surprise visits, according to the officials, is determined to make sure that farmers get the right prices at the right weight for their crops so that they can benefit from their labour.


The recent visit was conducted at Mtiniko North in Mtwara, where the officials participated in the weighing of cashew nut consignments which were ready for transportation, where they found the weight was according to regulations.

Mtwara Regional Manager, David Makungu said that the sensitisation exercise conducted by the weight agency to cashew nut farmers has helped them to know the right use of weights, which has reduced cases of poor weighing systems experienced earlier.

He said that among the warehouses they visited yesterday they encountered several challenges, including cases where unscrupulous farmers mixed damaged nuts with the good ones to make the load appear heavy, but when they reach the warehouse the weight reduces because the bad ones are removed.

“The aim of the surprise visits is to make sure that the weights we inspected earlier are still in the same condition and have not been tampered with,” he said. He added that this year they have tried to increase sensitisation visits to farmers to rescue them from unfaithful business people who have a habit of tampering with the weights to favour them.

One of the directors, Ms Stella Kahwa lauded the efforts put in by the weight agency in Mtwara region, saying that it is a noble exercise which aims to redeem farmers from poor prices and help them tackle poverty.

“This exercise goes hand in hand with the fifth phase government’s initiative of making Tanzania an industrialised country, because with the right weights and measures it will motivate farmers to produce more, and in the long run availability of raw material will be good,” she said.