Avocado Exports From Kenya
Kakuzi Limited is a leading avocado exporter from Kenya specialising in Hass avocados. This genre produces fruit all year-round and accounts for the majority of cultivated avocados in the world. The Kakuzi farm is locate 7km from Nairobi and stretches over a 400 ha plantation. The company has got markets in Europe and UK.
Production Capacity
In 2009 Kakuzi exported 233 containers (1,286 tons) of avocados of which 94 containers were Fuerte variety from smallholders, and 139 containers from Kakuzi estate. Smallholders supply Kakuzi with Fuerte (Green skins) whilst Kakuzi estate only produces Hass variety, which turns purple upon ripening.
However, Kakuzi is planting a small area of Pinkerton variety, a green skin that matures later than Fuerte and will fill a gap in the European market. Kakuzi has strived to achieve best management systems with very high standards and has a number of accreditations that have been given by external certifying bodies. Some of these certificates are: GlobalGap certificate; Tesco’s Natures Choice – Gold standards; ISO 22000:2005 and Rainforest Alliance.
Smallholders Scheme
In 2007, the company tried to encourage smallholders groups to supply directly to the Kakuzi packing facility to enable the local farmers to obtain higher returns for their fruit, rather than the existing practice of selling through a long a market chain.
Initially middle men bought the produce from the farmers and then brought it to the packing facilities. This unfortunately proved impractical since each group comprises 20-40 farmers who average approximately six trees per grower. These groups of farmers were mainly from the Gatanga, Maragwa and Kandara divisions.
The quantities of fruit picked within the groups was not enough to justify hiring a vehicle to ferry the produce to the pack house and culminated in delayed deliveries and the subsequent increase in damage to the fruit. Of the 84 groups signed up, with an average of 30 farmers per group, the 2,520 farmers only provided limited volume of Fuerte to support an export program.
In 2008, Kakuzi signed up six brokers who would source the fruit from other areas and deliver to the packing facility. These brokers have continued to supply Kakuzi with the quantities and qualities of Fuerte avocados required, and a good working relationship has developed with them whereby Kakuzi has been able to assist with quality assurance ideas, quality issues, and assistance when required.
Outgrowers
Growers with areas greater than 4 hectares are known as outgrowers, and Kakuzi has implemented an outgrower’s scheme whereby Kakuzi sells the farmer good quality grafted Hass avocado plants at minimal cost, and then offers free advice on nutrition, pest and disease control, and good husbandry, with visits when requested.
Challenges
Avocado Exports are facing numerous challenges in supplying the European Union (EU). These not only include production challenges with increasing negative affects caused by droughts in 2009, pest management but also two major concerns.
Logistics in getting Avocados of good quality to the EU are getting more and more difficult to manage. Shipping rates have increased by on average 20 percent over 2009 rates. If the rates are not checked, the future fresh avocado exports from Kenya or East Africa might be at risk.
Because of piracy the transit time by ships to Europe has increased from 15 days in 2006 to the present 30 to 36 days. This places serious pressure on arrival quality and shelf life of this product.
To mitigate this Kakuzi also routinely make use of Smartfresh, a post harvest treatment applied to fruit once containerized, and which assists in delaying fruit ripening thus extending shelf life. But this is also at an added cost which means less income to the farmer.
Fortunately Avocados are having far greater acceptance in healthy dietary programs which has kept up the demand for this fruit in the EU, even considering the global economic turmoil and effect this has on customer spend.
Conclusion
Kakuzi Estate continues to be active in the development of the Avocado Industry in Kenya and works closely with FPEAK, KEPHIS, KARI and other packers to ensure that the industry in Kenya is to survive, and that in time, will become a major supplier to the European markets due to their due diligence in complying with the strict requirements of a sophisticated market.
