Sunflower seed (Helianthus annuus L) is the source of 62% of all edible oil produced in Tanzania. The annual production of sunflower seed ranged between 80,000 and 500,000 tons from 2001 to 2004, with a mean of 290,000 tons. From this seed, approximately 100 tons of oil were extracted. Tanzania, however is a net importer of vegetable oil. The total oil requirement for 2004 was estimated to be 195,000 tons.

At an annual growth rate of 2% the oil requirement for 2006 was approximately 283,000 tons, of which an estimated 85,000 tons was to be imported. If locally produced sunflower oil can substitute the imported oil, 462,000 tons of sunflower seed will be needed to satisfy the total oil demand, which will require an area of 448,000 to 555,000 hacters of sunflower to be grown annually.

Oil cake is a byproduct of sunflower oil extraction and is a source of protein for animal feed blends. Tanzanian sunflower oil cake, however, is considered to be of relatively poor quality due to high crude fiber content. The value of sunflower oil cake is equivalent to 62% of the value of soybean oil cake. The relatively poor quality of sunflower oil cake restricts the amount of that can be included in feed blends for poultry and pigs.

The estimated consumption of sunflower oil cake by the animal feed manufacturers during 2005 was 130,000 tons produced from 320,000 tons of seed. The demand for sunflower seed is limited by the oil cake quality rather than the demand for oil, which is the main product of the seed.

Tanzania experiences a shortage of high quality plant protein for supply in the demand of the animal feed industry. As a result 163,000 tons of oil cake (mainly soybean) was imported annually from 2003 to 2004 to supplement the local production of 127,000 tons, produced mainly from sunflower. The important requirement has since risen to 315,257 tons for 2006. The annual cost of imported oils has exceeded Tshs 5 billion since 2003, which is approximately twice the amount of money local sunflower farmers receive for their sunflower seed.

The feed value of sunflower oil cake will compare well with that of soybean oil cake if it can be improved through more efficient dehulling. The demand for sunflower cake would be 544,331 tons if the crude fibre content can be kept below 14% and the protein above 40%. Approximately 1.3 million tons of seed would satisfy the demand.

The number of sunflower crushers and refiners is only 500 in Tanzania with over thrice of arable land compared to 1,620 crushers in Kenya with less arable land. Though this project looks common in the country, the opportunity is still very high if proper marketing strategies will be implemented to convert the demand for imported edible oil to locally produced natural oil.

If the quality of the locally produced sunflower oil cake can be improved, the possibility of over production would diminish and the supply of oil and oil cake would be more in balance with the demand. This could lead to savings on imports of oil and probably also oil cake more sunflower oil cake could replace expensive imported protein sources.

Although oil content is the only seed quality parameter sometimes taken into account in trade of sunflower seed, higher quality oil cake may affect seed prices positively for the farmer. It is thus clear that improved sunflower oil cake quality would benefit farmers, the oil, soap making, and oil cake industry as well as the animal feed industry.