The Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA) recently inaugurated the country’s first avocado cluster for farmers in the northern zone regions.
During the launch of the cluster, Taha’a CEO Jacquiline Mkindi explained that the facility will assist farmers in training, input and seedlings supplies, as well as access to new processing technologies and markets.
According to the Global Avocado Market – Forecasts from 2020 to 2025 study, the global avocado market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.72% over the forecast period to reach a total market size of USD 17.905 billion by 2025, increasing from USD 12.824 billion in 2019.
Mkindi said Tanzania should seize the opportunity represented by the increasing international demand for avocados, hence the need for a dedicated cluster to promote the crop.
Avocado clusters, bringing together several farmers, are being established in order to enable them to produce enough volume for the export market.
Tanzania Avocado Production and Export
Tanzania is the third largest avocado producer in Africa, after South Africa and Kenya. Tanzania exported between 8,500 and 9,000 tonnes of avocado in 2020.
A recent study titled “Tanzania’s Trade in Times of Covid-19: an Analysis for the Avocado, Coffee, Spices and Tea Sector” published by the International Trade Centre (ITC) indicates that Tanzania’s avocado exports showed an impressive growth performance over the last years.
The 2019 export value was more than 8.5 times the 2013 value and Tanzania’s share in world markets increased from 0.1% to 0.4%.
The top destinations for avocado from Tanzania are France and the Netherlands. Together, the two markets accounted for more than three-quarters of this product’s exports between 2014 and 2018. The United Kingdom came third with 14% of exports.
The ITC estimates that most of Tanzania’s opportunities to increase avocado exports lie in Europe. The most important market is the Netherlands, with an untapped potential of USD 1.8 million. The second-largest market is France, but there the export potential is already fully realized.
Other markets with large untapped export potential include Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and China, while the potential to export avocado to Africa is very small.
