Tanzania, United Republic of
Overview
Situated in the eastern Coast of Africa, Tanzania is one of Africa’s politically stable countries. Bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and DRC to the west and Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia to the south, the country serves as a gateway to the landlocked countries of Burundi, DRC, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia.
In addition to the logistics support for Tanzania Country projects, WFP Tanzania Logistics manages the Dar es Salaam logistics corridor and provides logistics support to WFP operations in neighbouring countries of Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda. In addition WFP Logistics provides logistical support to UNHRC, managing their regional strategic emergency relief item stocks.
Team
The Logistics Team is managed from the Dar es Salaam Country Office and has offices in Dar es Salaam Port, Isaka and Kigoma managed by International Logistics Officers and Arusha and Dodoma managed by National staff.
Activities
Port Operations
The Port of Dar es Salaam is one of the key entry points into the East Coast of Africa with an annual throughput of 7 million tons handling about 93% of Tanzania’s port traffic. WFP uses Dar es Salaam port to receive all its bulk, break bulk and containerised cargo both for Tanzania and transit country. In addition WFP continues to use the port for transhipment operations to Somalia.
Storage
WFP operates four storage hubs at Dar es salaam Port, Isaka, and Kigoma for both transit and in-country stocks and at Dodoma and Arusha for Country project activities. In addition, WFP operates milling plants at Isaka and Dodoma, offering the advantage of longer storage of grains. Additional storage capacity can be added should the need arise using fixed storage and mobile storage in all the locations.
Road Transport
As an alternate to rail and to serve areas not served by rail WFP increasingly uses road transport for both overland and internal transport. Tanzania has a 4578Km of paved trunk road. In-country transport capacity is adequate to meet WFP current needs. There are currently 50 short-listed transporters and additional capacity exists that can be called should demand increase.
Rail
For primary transport WFP uses the 1254 kms Central Railway line from Dar es Salaam to Lake Tanganyika serving Western Tanzania operations and DRC and Burundi. The central Line branches at Tabora terminating at Mwanza and is used to feed the WFP dry port and cargo centre at Isaka at total of 980 kms from Dar es salaam which also serves DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and North Western Tanzania. This rail network was privatised in 2007 through a concession agreement. While overall performance has improved and WFP throughput increased significantly, the rail system continues to be faced with a number of problems ranging from labour relations , inadequate rolling stock to dilapidated tracks and cannot be relied upon in case of a surge in throughput.
The southern Corridor in Tanzania links the Port of Dar es Salaam with Zambia via the Tazara Railway line connecting with Zambia Railways line. The rail gauge on this line is 1.067m and is compatible with railways in southern African countries. WFP is presently not using this corridor as these countries are adequately served by alternative corridors in southern Africa.
Aviation
There are no aviation services in Tanzania.
