Tanzania's dairy sector is turning to digital technology to address one of its persistent challenges: connecting farmers more efficiently to markets, services and reliable information.
The Tanzania Milk Processors Association (TAMPA) has launched Maziwa Hub, a digital dairy platform designed to connect farmers with processors and other actors across the dairy value chain. The platform provides access to market opportunities and information intended to help farmers make better business decisions.
The initiative comes as Tanzania works to expand its domestic dairy industry while reducing dependence on imported milk products. National milk production has increased substantially in recent years, rising to about 4.2 billion litres in 2025/26 from 3 billion litres in 2019/20. Yet processors continue to face shortages of reliably supplied raw milk, while farmers struggle with low productivity, inconsistent markets and inadequate collection systems.
Maziwa Hub is intended to close some of those gaps by bringing farmers closer to buyers and services through a single digital channel. Its features include access to market information, connections with processors and other business opportunities, with the platform also designed to support access to veterinary and other dairy-related services.
For farmers, better market information can be particularly important in a sector where prices, production conditions and buyer relationships influence whether dairy remains an attractive livelihood. Tanzania's dairy farmers have previously reported problems with low prices and delayed payments, with some shifting away from dairy production when markets become unreliable.
The platform also arrives as Tanzania's wider agricultural economy embraces digital markets. Digital auctions and other technology-driven systems are already being used to improve price transparency and connect producers more directly with buyers in commodities such as sesame and other crops. The country's Warehouse Receipt System, for example, handled 1.122 billion kilogrammes of nine crops through the Tanzania Mercantile Exchange in 2025/26, with farmers receiving more than Sh2.298 trillion (about $910 million) from sales.
For the dairy industry, the opportunity is to apply that same principle of better information and market connectivity to a highly perishable product. Milk cannot be stored indefinitely while farmers search for buyers, making reliable collection, timely payments and strong links with processors particularly important.
Tanzania is simultaneously investing in the physical side of the dairy value chain. A government-backed programme has supported more than 92,000 dairy farmers and other stakeholders, including the establishment of 23 milk collection centres and the expansion or modernisation of 17 processing plants.
The challenge now is ensuring that digital access translates into real transactions, better farm productivity and more dependable incomes. If Maziwa Hub can help farmers find buyers faster, access useful services and understand market conditions before selling, it could become another piece of Tanzania's broader effort to formalise and modernise its dairy economy.
NBF Insight
Digital agriculture has become less about putting information online and more about connecting farmers to the people, services and markets that determine whether their production actually becomes income. For Tanzania's dairy farmers, Maziwa Hub is an attempt to make that connection faster and more visible.
