The 2021 Avocado Harvesting Season In Kenya Starts

The harvesting season for Kenyan avocado has started in February 2021. The season starts with the Fuerte variety in February and the hass variety in March. The harvesting, processing and transportation of the Kenyan avocados, especially the hass and Fuerte varieties, had been halted by a government restriction. This is usually done to prevent greedy traders from exporting immature fruits to the international market, something that has been hurting the country’s reputation in the world avocado market.

Kenyan Hass avocado for export

Kenya Fresh, one of the exporting companies in Kenya says that the key markets remain in the European Union, especially the Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain. Russia has also grown into an important market for the Kenyan avocados especially because it prefers Fuerte. Most of the avocado farmers in Kenya concentrate on hass avocado production but as such markets open up for Fuerte, more Fuerte plantations are likely to come up.

The Middle East countries of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt also form part of the market we shall be exporting our avocados to this year. In the Far East, we target Malaysia and Singapore.  

Kenya is also trying to renegotiate trade protocols with China in regards to avocado. Currently, China only accepts frozen avocados from Kenya. If they agree to import fresh avocados from us, then Kenya will have a breakthrough in the avocado industry. This is because China has a very high population of people who also have high purchasing power.

If you would like to go into avocado farming for export, then be sure to read our article How To Grow Avocados In Kenya For Export