In the three months leading up to May, Kenyan shipments of avocados to China reached Ksh9 billion ($64.38 million), beating fierce competition from Chile, the world’s biggest fruit exporter. Between March and May this year, Kenya sent seven million kilograms to Beijing as additional farms and packing houses took advantage of the lucrative Chinese market.
According to the crops agency Kenya Plants Inspectorate Service (Kephis), 58 farms and 20 pack houses make up the 78 exporters that have received licenses to access the Chinese market since January.
George Momanyi, the principal inspector at Kephis, claimed that more farmers and packing firms are vying for entry to the lucrative Chinese market because it offers better prices than the more established European and Middle Eastern markets. “We have seen a huge increase in terms of demand for exports of our avocado to China. This has boosted the earnings the country is getting from this new market,” said Momanyi.
According to him, Chile’s produce, whose crop is in season and has swamped the Chinese market, competes fiercely with Kenya’s produce. “The earnings would be more than what we recorded were it not for Chile fruits that have flooded the Chinese market,” he added.
After waiting for several years due to Beijing’s regulatory constraints, Kenya finally began exporting avocados to China last August. Kenya had long been interested in the Chinese market, but the shipment of fresh fruit was prohibited; only frozen fruits were permitted.
Since the initial agreement between Kenya and China was struck in 2019, access to the Chinese market has been delayed due to logistics and a lack of critical infrastructure.
When the market first opened in August of last year, avocado exports to China brought in Ksh7 billion ($50 million) in the three months that ended in October, surpassing the Ksh6 billion ($42.92 million) that Kenya had brought in between March and July of the same year, demonstrating the significance of the Chinese market for Kenya.
As one of the requirements to access that market, producers, and exporters who wish to export fresh avocados to China must make sure that all of their producing farms, packing houses, and fumigation treatment facilities are registered.
All fresh avocado fruits intended for export must also abide by all applicable phytosanitary (plant health) laws and regulations as well as health and safety standards. They must also be free of any quarantine pests that China is concerned about.