03
Value addition and markets
Develop post-harvest management, processing hubs, product branding, certification and quality assurance to connect producers with better markets.
Women and youth. A stronger blue economy.
Creating pathways from low-value, climate-exposed livelihoods to resilient, higher-value opportunities across Zanzibar’s seaweed and aquaculture value chains.
3x
Connected priorities
6
Connected priorities
1,440
Connected priorities
75
Connected priorities
The challenge
The ocean sustains livelihoods. The value must reach communities.
Zanzibar’s seaweed farmers, many of them women, face rising sea temperatures, volatile weather and pressure on yields. Traditional production practices alone are often insufficient to respond to these changes.
Women and young people also remain concentrated in lower-value parts of the value chain, with limited processing infrastructure, bargaining power and access to better markets.
ZMBF responds by connecting climate-smart production, stronger producer groups, local value addition and market access—not treating these as isolated problems.
Our approach
Three practical pathways to economic empowerment.
Strategic Pillar 1 moves women and youth toward higher-value roles in seaweed and aquaculture value chains.
02
Stronger cooperatives
Support producer-group leadership, collective voice, contract farming and access to appropriate digital finance tools.
01
Climate-smart production
Improve farming practices, access to skills and adaptation capacity so coastal livelihoods can withstand climate shocks.
Our intended outcomes
Prosperity that lasts beyond the harvest.
The Strategic Plan II identifies three outcomes for this pillar.
Climate adaptation
Enhanced capacity to withstand climate shocks through climate-smart practices.
Diversified livelihoods
More opportunities through value-added products and sustainable social enterprises.
Greater income and resilience
Increased income, productivity and financial resilience among women and youth in seaweed and aquaculture value chains.
Flagship intervention
SESEP
Seaweed Social Enterprise Programme
SESEP is ZMBF’s flagship programme for building a connected seaweed value chain: producer-group strengthening, contract farming, post-harvest management, processing hubs, product development and market access.
Digital finance and market-access tools, as well as cooperative leadership, are supporting elements of the approach. Proposed commercial expansion remains subject to testing and approval.
Discover SESEP ↗
An integrated value chain
01
Farmers & producers
02
Collection & hubs
03
Processing & research
04
Products & brands
05
Markets & growth
Reported progress
Building on lessons and results.
ZMBF Strategic Plan II reports tangible progress from earlier seaweed livelihood activities.
3x
Average income reported
Average annual farmer income reportedly rose from TZS 900,000 to TZS 3,000,000.
1,440
Farmers trained
Training helped build farming skills and practices.
75
Producer groups supported
Seaweed farming groups received support.
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