Avocado exporters want govt help to access China market
Avocado farmers in Njombe Region wait for customers. Exporters want the government to negotiate with China to enhance exports to the Asian country. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
The government has been called to start fresh negotiation with China, to enable avocado producers to start exporting their products. This follows the overcrowding of European market where they are currently exporting.
Dar es Salaam. Exporters of Avocado have called on the Tanzanian government to review bilateral trade agreements with China, to enable them to penetrate the huge Asian country’s market.
This was said by Kilimanjaro-based Africado during the Food, Beverage and Milling Industry Conference held last week in Dar es Salaam.
The company’s Exports manager, Mr George Akida, said the move came after learning that the European Union market where they used to export the product was overcrowded, following an increase in production in Latin America.
Mr Akida revealed that last year the company exported 3,000 tonnes of avodaco to the EU, but this year the quantity was expected to fall to 2,200.
“China is a potential market for our product, but we cannot export there because of lack of a bilateral agreement to allow us to do so,” he said.
“There is a possibility that the EU market will be oversupplied and the price might go down because larger producers like Peru and Mexico have increased production,” he added.
He said the market forecasts forced Tanzanian exporters to look for other fresh markets, possibly China, which, despite being huge, was still underexploited.
Currently in the EU the commodity is sold at $1 per kilogram but the price may vary due to season.
The objective of the meeting was to bring local and foreign producers together.
