Arusha — Some 20,000 workers in the horticulture industry face redundancy due to a decline in demand of horticultural products including cut flowers worldwide.

The drop in demand for flowers and green vegetables from Tanzania comes amidst the world economic crunch as customers in the world market have now changed their priorities in consumption

The disturbing news was announced last week by Executive Director of the Tanzania Association for Horticultural Agriculture (TAHA) Ms Jackline Mkindi at the members seminar on management and capacity building in the industry.

The seminar held at the Equator hotel in Arusha was attended by managers and workers from the industry and was sponsored and facilitated by a Kenyan-based institution, 'Peak Performance'.

Mkindi explained that the price of Tanzania flowers had gone down by between 40 to 50 per cent while that of green vegetables had dropped by 25 to 30 per cent.

She said the major market for Tanzania's flowers was in the United States of America but in the wake of sharp fall in prices there, Tanzania flowers sellers turned to European markets where competition was still stiff due to the presence of big time producers such as Colombia.

The director said TAHA appealed to the government of Tanzania to give them bail out subsidy to escape total close down of the industry in the country.

She said government stimulus subsidy was important at present as the cost of freight and export was bigger than the anticipated profits hence running the business becomes unprofitable.

TAHA had been organizing capacity building seminars for managers and workers in the industry to avoid labour conflicts.

Farm managers, seed distributors and workers from over 30 flower and vegetable farms in Arusha region attended the seminar.