Kenya Lifts Ban on Avocado Exports as Prices Soar High

A month after avocado exports were banned, Kenya has now lifted the ban and exports have already begun.

In late January, The Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) suspended the export of avocado after reports of premature exports emerged.

The move came about in a bid to safeguard the quality of exports after middlemen began putting pressure on farmers to harvest premature fruit, encouraged by the huge benefits reaped from the Chinese market.

According to market analysts, the price of a 4 Kg carton of avocado is 1,760 shillings, compared to 1,100 shillings in the same period last year.

Due to the high demand of the Kenyan variety of avocado called Fuertes, the prices have been going up since last year.

The Fuertes avocado is often recognized as the archetypal avocado, green in color, pear-like in shape, and ranging from six to twelve ounces in size. It has smooth, medium-thin skin that peels easily, with dense, pale green flesh.

Kenya is currently the only country producing the Fuertes variety of avocado and that is why the prices are soaring high.

CEO of Fresh Producers Consortium of Kenya, Ojepati Okesegere has said that the first batch of exports already left on Saturday, 15^th February 2020.

“The ban has been lifted and we have already started the exports of avocado with the first ship leaving over the weekend,” he said.

Kenya exports its avocado produce to Spain, Germany, Russia, and the Middle-Eastern countries, with the fruit contributing 7 percent of the total fruit export to the world market.

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