Kakuzi Plc workers packaging avocados.
Kenyan farmers reaped big from a ‘green gold’ bonanza after the country earned nearly Sh20 billion from the export of avocados in the eleven months to November 2023, propelling the fruit into one of Kenya’s major foreign exchange earners.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that the country earned Sh19.6 billion by end of November last year from the export of fresh avocados, an increase of 33% from Sh15 billion earned in the entire 2022.
The earnings came after the country shipped 122 million kilograms of avocado to the global market, which means a kilogram fetched an average of Sh160.
In 2022, Kenyans earned an average of Sh146.8 per kilo of the fruit, which means that farmers might also have benefited from a weak exchange rate which raised the value of the exports in local currency terms.
In the previous year Kenya exported Sh102.4 million kilogram of avocado, mostly to European and Middle East countries.
“Avocado has a huge potential to become a major foreign exchange earner as the global demand is high,” said Dr Timothy Njagi, a research fellow at Tegemeo Institute, an agricultural public policy think-tank affiliated to Egerton University.
China – a new market for the Kenyan fresh avocados and a major consumer of the fruit— earned the country Sh1.1 billion, nearly seven times the Sh158.4 million Kenya received in 2023.
“[For the exports to China] we are not optimum yet,” said Okisegere Ojepat, the CEO of the Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya.
Sh5.9 billion
The Netherlands remains Kenya’s largest market for avocado having bought 37.4 million kilograms of the fruit and paid Sh5.9 billion in the review period.
The United Arab Emirates is the other major destination for Kenya's avocados having paid Sh2.6 billion for the produce, France (Sh2.05 billion), Spain (Sh1.9 billion), and Turkey (Sh1.5 billion), according to the data which was collected by the Kenya Revenue Authority.
Companies such as Kakuzi, listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, whose avocado profits more than doubled in the first half of 2023 to Sh654.8 million, up from Sh288.6 million in 2022.
This represented a growth of 126.9 percent growth which the agricultural firm attributed to diversified market sales in China and Europe as well as increased production due to favourable weather conditions and recovery from the off-production season.
Ernest Muthomi, the CEO of Avocado Society of Kenya, attributed the increased earnings income from exported avocado to a high demand for super fruits, especially among the millennials which are health conscious. “And avocado happens to be one of the super fruits,” said Muthomi.
“The millennials have fallen in love with avocados because it is a healthy fruit, it is cool to them,” added Muthomi.
Mr Ojepaat noted that Kenya has been on the upward trajectory in terms of planting avocado, with a lot of people planting the fruit to meet a growing global demand for a fruit that some consumers use for its pharmaceutical and beauty purposes. The fruit has also been used for production of juices.
Dr Njagi noted that a lot of land has since paved the way for the planting of avocados, taking the place of coffee farms in Central Kenya and maize in North Rift Valley and Western Kenya.
Immature avocado
The quantity of exported avocado could be higher had the Government not restricted the export after it emerged that some traders were selling immature avocado, a move that could tarnish Kenya’s produce in the global market.
“Avocado have the potential to be a major forex earner. The key is for Kenya to be able to maintain the standards, especially those who are selling food,” said Njagi.
“You know, the one being sold in China for oil processing is not that strict, but the one being sold as food is very strict,” said Njagi.
Last year, the Horticultural Crops Directorate (HCD) suspended the export of Hass, Pinkerton, Fuerte, and Jumbo avocado varieties by sea starting November 3, 2023.
The directorate, however, cleared air shipment of avocados, including those in transit from other East African Community (EAC) countries.
“Following the findings of the survey, we hereby notify the Kenyan avocado stakeholders that the closing of Hass, Pinkerton, Fuerte, and Jumbo harvesting season and export by sea for the 2023/2024 fiscal year shall be in force with effect from November 3, 2023,” said HCD acting Director-General Willis Audi.
