WANDILE SIHLOBO: What Kenya’s avocado revolution can teach SA growers
China’s burgeoning demand for avocados has dramatically boosted Kenya’s exports — it could do the same for ours
There has been a revolution in the Kenyan avocado export market, characterised by the enormous growth in the past three years. After remaining a relatively small exporter of avocado for a prolonged period, Kenya has now overtaken SA to be the leading exporter of avocado in the continent and the seventh largest in the world. To be clear though, this is not because SA is becoming insignificant, Kenya is finally doing what it should have been doing for a long period. You see, although Kenya has consistently been the continent’s leading producer of avocados, accounting for nearly 30% of production, which is twice the volume produced by SA, its export activity was generally marginal. It was only in 2016 that they started to catch up with the likes of SA, generating export revenues of $64m from $8m in 2001, according to data from Trade Map. In the week of April 26 2019, Kenya has taken its avocado export drive to new heights, by signing a Memorandum of Understanding on sanitary and phytos...
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