Horticulture exports gaining momentum

The Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha) is reporting an increase in revenue from the export of avocados which until now were not considered key export cash crop.  However growing demand in the US and Europe has seen the sub-sector increase revenue to US$23 million annually.  Tanzania is the second largest producer of avocado fruit in Africa second only to Kenya. Over the past five years, avocado exports have leap-frogged from 1,877 tonnes in 2014 to 9,000 tonnes in 2019 and were it not for the COVID-19 outbreak, this figure was expected to go higher.  Also Read: COVID-19 response must target African agriculture and the rural poor Kenya is already doing much better with its estimated annual output of about 190,000 tonnes as the country exports an average of 10,000 metric tonnes annually.  In Tanzania, there are about 10,000 farmers of the crop who are spread out across the country and of these, now most have turned to the production of the fruit for export as species keep improving. However, avocados take awhile to mature and so expanding production is difficult.  That being true, the global output of avocados has increased by 178 percent in less than a decade. The growth spans from 891,000 tonnes in 2011 to 2.5 million tonnes in 2018 – mostly driven