Zanzibar's Sh40 billion market faces crisis just a year after launch
Traders at the new Sh40 billion Chuini Modern Market in Zanzibar are struggling with low customer turnout and rotting produce. Government officials are now threatening enforcement to force a wholesale banana auction to relocate to the facility to boost activity.
Why it matters
The situation highlights the challenges of government-led infrastructure projects failing to meet local economic needs and the subsequent friction between authorities and traders.
Unguja. Nearly a year after the inauguration of the Sh40 billion Chuini Modern Market in Zanzibar’s Urban West Region, traders are lamenting a severe customer shortage that they warn is eroding their capital.
Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi launched the modern facility on September 20, 2025, to bring services closer to consumers and boost traders’ incomes.
However, traders contend that the absence of a wholesale produce auction has left the market deserted, as buyers prefer competing trade hubs.
Speaking on Saturday, July 18, 2026, during a tour of the market by Zanzibar’s Second Vice-President, Hemed Suleiman Abdulla, traders noted that their agricultural produce was rotting due to low footfall.
A spice and produce vendor, Fwarda Saidi Ali, said that despite paying a daily market levy of Sh2,000, amounting to Sh60,000 monthly, business has remains stagnant.
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