Effect of changes in business environments on traded medicinal plants products in Tanzania: An explorative study

In Tanzania, a complex rural to urban supply network for the medicinal plants' products trade has developed over time driven by changes in business environments at the macro level notably in the policy and regulatory frameworks and the micro level resulting from traders’ reactions and responses to those changes and pandemics. These changes in business environments and responses of traders have shaped the current trade practices. However, the response of traders to changes in business environments and the evolutionary paths over time are not well documented. Therefore, this paper aimed to synchronize changes in business environment over time and empirically determine how the trade has evolved concerning the responses of the medicinal plants' traders in Tanzania. The study applied economic evolution theory to describe the interactions of changes in business environments and responses of traders to demarcate the evolutionary stages. Primary data were collected from traders, regulators, and researchers through ten focus group discussions and sixteen in-depth interviews from five regions of Tanzania. The results indicated that the traders of medicinal plant products responded by improving product appearance and modernizing both practices and business premises. The study findings have identified four evolutionary stages of trade in medicinal plant products in Tanzania: The first stage was the colonial era (1882–1961), the second is the government supremacy era (1961–1984), the third is the emergence of the private sector era (1985–2004), and the fourth is the market and regulation integration era (started in 2005). Moreover, because of the partial implementation of the regulatory framework, the fifth stage of trade evolution is also expected. This stage is expected to be demarcated when the regulatory framework and market forces work together. Therefore, the study recommends that proper enforcement measures be put in place to ensure desired results whenever there are changes in business environments in traditional medicines practice. This is due to the expectation of the fifth stage whereby one of its characteristics is stiff competition among traders and which will require robust business models to survive in business.