Kenya to begin Avocado harvesting season in 2022

By Bisola Adeyemo

Kenya government has closed the Avocado harvesting season from 15th November to early January 2022, as a measure to prevent exporting of immature avocados.

The Director, Horticulture Crops Directorate (HCD), Benjamin Tito, confirmed this on Tuesday to newsmen.

While speaking on exporting immature fruits, Tito explained that exporting immature Avocados has negatively affected the image of the country in the overseas market, in addition to interfering with the cropping cycle of trees thereby reducing projected volumes in subsequent harvests, KNA said.

“The closure of the season was necessitated by a surveillance that was conducted during the month of September, 2021, in major avocado production agro-ecological zones to ascertain the volumes of avocado fruits that can be exported by either sea or air,” he stated.

In a review, horticulture products exported in 2021 from January to November, rose from Sh136.7 billion in 2020 to Sh145.4 billion in 2021 representing a 6 percent increase.

Tito however noted that the review to open avocado exports will be done on the 15th of January 2022 with allowable offseason sizes for varieties of Hass and Fuerte limited to a maximum size code of 22 and 24 respectively.

Kenya was the leading exporter of Avocado in Africa and among top 10 world’s largest exporters last year, with Murang’a leading with 31 percent total production.

Horticulture products exported in 2021 from January to November, he said, rose from Sh136.7 billion in 2020 to Sh145.4 billion in 2021 representing a 6 percent increase. This, he attributed to the increased volumes despite the average export prices achieved being low compared to those achieved in 2020.