Saba Saba Day – Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair
DITF, short for the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair, is an annual event that comes up on every July 7 annually. Also called Saba Saba Day, the fair takes place at the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Trade Fair Grounds. The ground is situated along Kilwa Highway, 8 km southeast of the capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam.
Saba Saba Day is a leading promotional event held yearly. It is put together by the Committee on Foreign Trade, a government unit created under Act No 5 of 1978 to be in charge of Tanzania’s export affairs.
In 1962, a year after Tanzania’s independence on December 9 1961, the venue of the fair, the Mwalimu JK Nyerere Trade Fair Grounds, was opened.
During this early period, the event was called the National Agrarian and Trade Fair, and the Department of Trade and Cooperative Unions were in charge of the grounds.
The inaugural edition of the trade fair took place in 1963. Mr Lucas, a specialist from the United Kingdom’s Department of Co-operative Unions and Trade, organized Saba Saba day with the help of Mr Mashaba, a high-ranking worker in the Department.
The Tanzanian Committee on Foreign Trade is in charge of creating global business collaboration by organizing and supervising foreign and specialized fairs, plan development, solitary exhibitions, produce and market surveys, contact promotion projects, seller-buyer gatherings and trade missions. The committee regularly supplies trade reports and offers advisory services to importers, exporters and manufacturers to make them effective participants in the international market.
Over the years, the Saba Saba day (DITF) has positioned itself as the place to discover Tanzanian goods and those from the Central, East and Southern African area. Backed by the Port of Dar es Salaam, a port that serves the area efficiently, the fair is a one-stop shop for reaching nations like Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, DRC, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Tanzanian business institutions patronize the Saba Saba day as it is an avenue for them to display their products and engage in business transactions.
Attendance at the fair has been steadily increasing, rising from a meagre 100 presenters in the late 1980s to more than 1,041 businesses in 1999. The 2006 edition recorded 1526 presenters that displayed their products at the Saba Saba day trade fair. The presenters came from more than 18 countries, including Tanzania.
The Department of Industry, Marketing and Trade extends the government’s support to the fair. Also, the Confederation of Tanzania Industries, the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture and other Tanzanian institutions support Saba Saba day trade fair.
Breakdown of presenters at the 2006 Saba Saba day trade fair is presented below
Total Presenters During Saba Saba Day
1526 local presenters and 108 foreign presenters
Countries present – 18
Presentation Size
Net Presentation – 35,000 square metres (Open and Covered)
Total Area – 160,000 square metres
Presenters’ Delineation
The variety of products of display include the following
- ICT
- Farming products
- Electrical appliances and wares
- Foodstuffs and beverages
- Clothes, apparel and yarns
- Farm tools
- Chemicals and cosmetic materials
- Machinery
- Automobile
- Computer programmes
- Traveler transit service providers
- Engineering merchandise
- Trading services
- Woodwork and timber
- Souvenir and handmade items
- Timber and furniture
- Fabricated products and many others
Forbidden Items
- Weapons and Armaments
- Narcotics
- Religious and Political Affairs.
Guests’ Profile
- Importers
- Business Directors
- Buyers and Merchants
- Agents
- Wholesalers
- VIPs
- General Public
2006 Guests
- Foreign guests – 4000 (estimated)
- Business visitors – 5000 (estimated)
- General public – 450000
Summary of Attendance at DITF between 2008 and 2009
Compared to the 27 countries represented at the 2008 edition of the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (Saba Saba day) in the JK Nyerere Fair Grounds, the 2009 edition had a total of 23 countries represented. The global economic crisis was identified as the cause of the slump.
Compared to the 1930 presenters present in 2008, the 2009 Saba Saba day edition had 2103 presenters in attendance. Of this figure, 343 were foreign presenters, while 1760 were local presenters. This figure represents an increase in the 326 foreign presenters and 1,602 local presenters that attended in 2008.
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