Kenyan farmers turn to avocados as demand soars
STORY: Albert Gumo, like other small-scale farmers in Western Kenya, has traditIonally grown maize.
But he's one of many who have reportedly switched - amid soaring global demand - to avocados.
Against a backdrop of poor sales for maize and changing weather patterns, avocados offer better prices, better yields, and can be harvested continuously for eight months of the year.
“I started harvesting about five weeks ago. The first harvest I got 6,000 Kenya shillings. The second harvest I got 11,000 Kenya shillings."
Gumo says the third harvest, happening on this day, will net him 30,000 shillings, or around $250.
He's one of 5,000 farmers working with Ibrahim Simiyu - a retired electronic engineer who started a business in 2018 promoting avocados for export.
Simiyu also trains farmers on how to grow quality crops.
“Like many of those farmers we also had to diversify from maize to avocado mainly because we understood and believe that avocado has got better returns on investment in terms of cash that maize does. That is not to say maize is not important.”
Kenya is now Africa's biggest producer of avocados.
It exports about 80,000 metric tons annually.
From the farm, the produce ends up at plants like Mofarm Fresh Fruit exporters.
There, the avocados are cleaned and packaged before being shipped to markets in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in Africa.
Claris Wambui is a packhouse manager at Mofarm.
“Our biggest market right now for the Hass avocado is in Spain and also some quantities go to the Netherlands. For Fuerte they go to the Middle East and also Egypt and also we have some quantities which go to Turkey.”
Kenya has also ventured into the Asian market.
In August this year it became the first African country to export fresh avocados to China.
