Onion Export from Tanzania

Onions grown in Tanzania's coastal soils

Our onions are grown on farms in Mkuranga District, on Tanzania's Coastal Region, where soils are clean and largely untainted by heavy industrial input over the years. This is the same growing base behind our Mitaranda Organic Project, established in 2016, and Kisele Organic Project, established in 2018, which together give us the acreage to plan onion volumes well ahead of the season.

The crop is planted and managed by our contracted farmer network of more than 50 growers, roughly 70 percent of them rural women who have been trained in organic cultivation. Each farmer works with certified seed and a guaranteed market for the finished bulbs, which keeps quality consistent from one growing cycle to the next.

Because onion is planted across both the Mitaranda and Kisele projects, we can spread growing risk and stagger planting dates, which helps us keep a more even flow of bulbs into curing and grading than a single-farm operation could manage. That matters most to buyers who need dependable monthly volumes rather than one large seasonal spike.

Organic cultivation, curing and grading

TanzPro Greens does not use synthetic fertilisers or chemical pesticides in onion production. Fields are managed with crop rotation, green manure and composting to keep the soil productive, with bio-pesticides used for pest pressure and drip or rain-fed irrigation depending on the plot. This is the same organic approach that earns our produce the East African Organic Mark (Kilimohai) and keeps us aligned with TOAM, the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement.

After harvest, bulbs are cured to toughen the outer skins and extend keeping quality, then sorted and graded by size and firmness before packing. Off-grade or damaged bulbs are removed at this stage, so what reaches the packhouse floor is a consistent, market-ready lot.

We also operate under Fair Trade principles across the onion programme, which shapes how farmers are paid and how the guaranteed-market arrangement works in practice. For buyers, this translates into a supply chain where the growers behind the crop have a direct stake in getting quality right, rather than a purely transactional relationship with the land.

Grading standards and quality control

Grading is done by hand against size, skin condition and firmness, with soft, split or sprouting bulbs pulled out before packing. Because onions are a keeping crop rather than a rapid-turnaround one, we can afford to be selective at this stage without compromising the delivery schedule.

Consistency matters more to most of our buyers than any single quality claim, and that is what grading is built to protect: a container of onions that opens the same way at the far end as it looked when it was packed in Mkuranga.

Grading also gives us the flexibility to sort by size band on request, whether a buyer wants larger bulbs for retail display or a tighter, uniform size for catering and food service. We confirm size specifications with each buyer before the first shipment so there is no ambiguity once volumes scale up.

Packing and export logistics

Once an order is confirmed, onions are pulled from cured stock, re-graded and packed into food-grade export cartons or mesh nets according to the buyer's specification. Packaging is compostable or recyclable where the format allows, in line with our wider sustainability practice.

From our packhouse, onions move either by air through Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam or by sea, depending on volume, destination and how the buyer wants to manage cost against transit time. Because cured onions hold up well in transit, sea freight is a practical option for larger, less time-sensitive orders.

We confirm freight method, carton weight and labelling with each buyer ahead of dispatch, since export documentation and packing requirements can differ by destination market. Getting this right at the planning stage avoids delays once the shipment is already in transit.

Markets we supply and why buyers choose TanzPro

TanzPro Greens exports across five markets: Seychelles, Dubai and the wider UAE, Oman, Russia, and East Africa, alongside local supply in Tanzania. Onions are one of the more flexible lines in that mix, since demand is steady across all of them and volumes can be scaled up or down within a season.

We have been doing this since 2014, working under Fair Trade principles and a 100 percent GMO-free growing standard, with a workforce built around trained, contracted farmers rather than casual seasonal labour. For every tonne we export, we also plant 50 indigenous trees as part of our ongoing tree-planting programme, which buyers increasingly ask about as part of their own sourcing story.

Our farms sit in Mkuranga District, close enough to Dar es Salaam and Julius Nyerere International Airport to keep logistics straightforward, while still benefitting from coastal soils that have avoided decades of heavy chemical use. That combination of clean land, trained labour and short logistics is what lets us commit to volumes with confidence rather than best-effort promises.

Starting an order with us

New buyers typically start with a trial shipment to check bulb size, curing quality and packing before committing to a standing schedule. From there we can build toward regular volumes, agreed lead times and a fixed grading specification.

To start, contact our export team at /contact with your target volumes, destination and preferred packing format, and we will come back with availability and a quote.