Tanzania is Africa’s top pulses exporter

In the past two weeks, we have discussed the progress that Tanzania has made in exporting two key pulses: Pigeon peas and chickpeas.

We also compared the performance of other countries—mainly within Africa—to gauge the East African nation’s competitiveness on the global stage.

Today, from a slightly different angle, we will carry out a similar exercise by looking at Tanzania’s export performance for pulses as a whole.

In 2024, Tanzania exported a total of 590,399 tonnes, up from 447,943 tonnes in 2023. With this quantity, Tanzania ranks first in Africa and eighth in the world, trailing only Canada, Australia, Russia, Myanmar, the United States, Turkey and India.

The next highest African exporter was Egypt, which exported 411,365 tonnes, followed by Mozambique with 262,739 tonnes, Ethiopia with 183,569 tonnes and Sudan with 163,723 tonnes.

Tanzania’s pulses exports were valued at 376.9 million US dollars, significantly lower than Egypt’s export value of 491.4 million US dollars.

In other words, although Egypt exported less by volume, it earned over USD 100 million more than Africa’s top exporter by quantity, Tanzania.

For years, Egypt has been Tanzania’s main competitor in the pulses export market, especially in the past two years—2023 and 2022—when Egypt’s export value surpassed Tanzania’s by just over 14 million US dollars and 69 million US dollars, respectively.

Egypt’s comeback appears to stem from its strategic focus on a crop where it excels: common beans. Of the 491.4 million US dollars earned from pulses exports in 2024, more than 300 million US dollars came from common beans—more than double the 143.8 million US dollars earned from common beans exports in 2023.

This growth was driven by a substantial increase in export quantity. In 2024, Egypt exported 212,773 tonnes of common beans, up from 103,880 tonnes in 2023.

The trend is consistent with previous years: 88,396 tonnes in 2020, 115,026 tonnes in 2021 and 125,608 tonnes in 2022.

This demonstrates how Egypt boosted its pulses exports—surpassing Tanzania in value— by increasing common bean production, a crop Tanzania has also long cultivated.

For Tanzania, the main drivers of increased export volumes—and hence increased export earnings—were pigeon peas and chickpeas, as has been the case for many years.

In 2024, Tanzania exported 341,126 tonnes of pigeon peas, up from 188,405 tonnes in 2023 and 108,257 tonnes in 2022.

What is striking is this twist of events: while Tanzania has taken the lead in pulses exports by quantity, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) ranks it only fourth in Africa for pulses production— behind Nigeria, Niger and Ethiopia—according to FAOSTAT.

Globally, Tanzania ranks twelfth in production. Yet in exports, according to the International Trade Centre (ITC), Tanzania leads the continent and stands eighth in the world.

In terms of Tanzania’s balance of payments for agricultural exports, pulses ranked third, behind horticultural products—which brought in nearly 619 million US dollars—and tobacco, which earned more than 545.6 million US dollars. Pulses generated 392 million US dollars in export earnings last year.

Last year, horticulture topped the list thanks to oil seeds exports, mostly sesame. Pulses came second then, but this marks the second consecutive year in which pulses rank third.

Not bad at all for a sub sector that largely thrives on its own with minimal public or private support.

Tags: export, chickpeas, pulses, Tanzania, pigeon peas