The government of Tanzania has committed to promote avocado farming. Deputy Minister for Investment, Industries and Trade, Exaud Kigahe made the statement and said they are planning to invest heavily to attract more people to venture into the lucrative business for the country’s development.
This he said will be achieved through taking robust measures including producing quality seedlings, promoting mass production, construction of processing factories and storage facilities.
The deputy minister acknowledged that avocado farming is key in the fight against poverty, saying that the government will increase support to enable farmers tap into the avocado global market. He said the sixth phase government will continue encouraging and promoting construction of factories in the country including those dealing with avocado processing.
Strategies
“Among the strategies put in place is setting aside enough and productive areas in each district across the country to facilitate establishment of the factories, creating a conducive environment for investors as well as ensuring that raw materials are easily available,” he said.
This also has been done in the Mufindi district at Igowole area, where the government has set aside a huge land for the construction of several factories and was welcoming investors who are willing to commence investments in the area, he explained.
According to current data, avocado production has increased from 20,000 tons in 2015/2016 to 190,000 tons in 2018/2019. In addition, exports of avocado increased from 3,279 tonnes in 2015 to 9,000 tonnes in 2019 which injected in the country a total of USD8.5 million.
Locally produced avocados are sold in European markets including France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom as well as in Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
In Tanzania, this farming started to gain momentum in 2015 where some people came forward and described what they had achieved from avocado cultivation. The regions which are major producers of avocado are Njombe, Iringa, Songwe, Morogoro, Kagera, Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Tanga.
Some of the companies that have benefited smallholder farmers by buying the crop and exporting it include Africado based in Kilimanjaro, Rungwe Avocado Limited, Tanzanice, where more than 2,000 farmers have benefited from the crop through these companies. Despite selling the crop, the people around the companies have benefited from the avocado cultivation support.
Njombe region has a factory known as ALVADO TZ ltd which has capacity to process and produce 100 tonnes of avocado oil per year and expert them in various parts. The region also has four collection centres which are used to package and transport avocado
“However, due to lack of enough avocados, the factory processes only 60 tonnes per month, this is a wakeup call for farmers in the areas to grab the opportunity by cultivating more avocados and selling them in the factory,” he added.
