Avocados have in a recent past become one of Tanzania’s hottest exports with more farmers engaging in what has been christened as the green gold.
However, even with production hitting record levels Tanzania is yet to hit the top 10 global producers with much of the production being dominated by Southern and Central American countries.
According to latest report by World of Statistics, Kenya is the only African country in the top 10 producers of Avocados with 176,045 tones annual production.
The leading producer being Mexico with 1,889,354 tonnes, Dominican Republic with 601,349, Peru 455,394 , Colombia with 309,431 and Indonesia with 304,938 tonnes per annum
Others are Brazil with 195,492, USA 172,630, Chile 137,365 and China 122,942 in the 10th slot.
Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA) estimates that the country’s avocado exports reached 11,237 tonnes, or 510 containers worth $33 million in 2021.
This is 12.6 percent more compared to 2020 sales. According to the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), in 2018 Tanzania exported 7,551 tons with a total value of $8.5 million to Europe, Africa, and Asia.
TAHA projects that Tanzania will export 15,000 tonnes in 2023, thus generating $45 million in foreign currency. Tanzania Avocado Production Avocado is a relatively new crop that Tanzania started exporting in 2009.
Commercial production/export of avocados is dominated by Rungwe Avocado Company Ltd and Africado Ltd, which is based in Siha District, Kilimanjaro region. The two companies jointly produce more than 5,000 tonnes per year.
The rest of the growers are smallholder farmers who own a couple to hundreds of avocado trees around their homesteads and in distant farms. Popular avocado varieties produced in Tanzania are Hass, Fuerte, Pinkerton, and, to some extent, Puebla.
Tanzania’s prominent avocado-producing areas are in the regions of Mbeya, Njombe, Songwe, and Iringa in the southwest, as well as in Kilimanjaro, Arusha, and Tanga in the northeast of the country, where coffee and tea are traditionally grown. Published by The Citizen
