Browsing: Avocados

Last year, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) released a report indicating that Kenyan farmers could benefit more by exporting their avocados to the high-value European market. 

The report showed that a European market could raise incomes of Kenya’s smallholder avocado farmers by nearly 39 per cent and fetch better prices for their produce. 

Mulubrhan Amare, the lead author and senior researcher at IFPRI noted that international agricultural markets generally offer higher price and demand higher quality in comparison to the local markets in Kenya.

Read: Horticulture exports gaining momentum

In September, Kenya’s horticulture industry was optimistic that there would be a quick recovery as the global economy slowly opened after the Covid-19 disruption. 

Export earnings from horticulture hit KSh72 billion (US$655 million) between January and May 2020, up from KSh65 billion (US$594 million) for the same period last …

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 USD 23 million annually.

Tanzania is the second largest producer of avocado fruit in Africa second only to Kenya. Over the past 5 years, avocado exports have frog leaped 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 only higher.

Kenya is already doing much better with its estimated annual output is about 190,000 tonnes every year as the country exports an average of 10,000 metric tonnes annually.

In Tanzania, there are about 10000 farmers of the crop who are spread out across the country and of these, now most have turned to the …