Avocado Exports Resume After Three Months Ban

Kenya’s Avocado farmers have a reason to smile as exports resume with higher prices after three months starvation of cash.

According to the first consignment that the left port on Saturday for Europe, the farmers will pocket Sh17,760, unlike Sh1,100 sold in last year’s season for a four-kilo carton.

“The ban has been lifted, and we have already started the exports of avocado with the first ship leaving over the weekend,” said Ojepati Okesegere, CEO of Fresh Producers Consortium of Kenya.

Kenya’s Fuerte variety is said to be in high demand globally and hence promising higher prices going forward.

“We are currently the only country in the world with this variety of avocado, and that is why the prices are this high,” he said.

Other countries importing this product include Spain, Germany, Russia, the Middle-East, and Far East countries, but the demand cannot be met.
According to him, countries from the far East will be considered after the ban on Hass variety imposed on November by the export embargo is lifted mid next month.

According to the Head of Horticulture Directorate Bernard Ondanji, the ban which was earlier set to be lifted March 15 for the Fuerte variety and April 15 for the Hass variety will be lifted a month earlier after a review by stakeholders.

“With the effects of climate change, the fruits can attain maturity either early or later than planned because of varying temperatures, and this is what we have witnessed,” he said.