Samia visit ‘unlocked $150 million China avocado market’
What you need to know:
- Estimates indicate that China’s avocado import value would surge to $174 million per annum by 2026, offering Tanzania a huge opportunity to significantly boost its export of avocados as well as other horticultural produce.
Arusha. President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s state visit to China will greatly boost Tanzania’s multi-million-dollar horticulture industry, an agri-business expert and key player says.
Analysing the visit, Taha Group chief executive officer Jacqueline Mkindi said the trip had in essence unlocked the nearly $150 million Chinese avocado market, offering a ray of hope for thousands of growers in Tanzania.
President Hassan’s diplomatic engagement with her Chinese counterpart, Mr Xi Jinping, during her state visit saw Tanzania and China sign a protocol on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures to allow Tanzanian-grown avocados to access the Chinese market.
“I’m grateful and proud of our President for her diplomatic prowess that led to the opening up of the avocado market in the world’s most populous nation, which has 1.4 billion people after four years of our futile struggles,” Ms Mkindi said.
The struggle to unlock the Chinese market started in 2018 when Taha discovered its potential, and appealed to the government to use diplomatic channels to ease the stringent SPS measures that prevented local avocados from accessing the lucrative market.
“Thousands of avocado growers in the country are currently counting their blessings, thanks to President Samia’s state visit, and they will soon raise their glasses to toast windfall profits as they are sure to cash in on the increasing demand for avocados in China,” the Taha chief added.
Official data shows that in 2021 China imported 59.61 million tonnes of avocados valued at $149 million, owing to China’s soaring appetite for the fruit driven by demand from its burgeoning health-conscious middle-class that has made the “butter fruit” — unheard of a few years ago — the country’s star performer in the imported fruit market.
Estimates indicate that China’s avocado import value would surge to $174 million per annum by 2026, offering Tanzania a huge opportunity to significantly boost its export of avocados as well as other horticultural produce.
Ms Mkindi said the Head of the State’s move is a big boost to the national strategy seeks to spur the horticulture industry to earn the economy $2 billion per annum and create jobs for Tanzanian women and youth along the entire value chain come 2030.
Taha CEO noted that the Chinese market would stimulate avocado production in Tanzania by both small and large-scale farmers, thus boosting incomes at household levels as well as increasing investment in agro-processing.
Tanzania’s annual avocado exports currently stand at around 12,000 tones worth nearly $30 million. However, Ms Mkindi said by 2026 the country envisages exporting virtually 20,000 tonnes that will bring in about $50 million annually.
Tanzania produces an average of 47,000 tonnes of exportable avocados annually, of which slightly over 12,000 metric tones are exported.
Ms Mkindi said that the sky’s the limit for Tanzania to flood the Chinese avocado market, owing to its competitive advantage of prevailing direct ship plying between the two countries, making it much quicker to export than from Chile, Peru and Mexico.
“A signed bilateral trade deal will keep the shelves of China’s supermarkets stocked with our butter fruits and in return, bring foreign currency to our economy, create jobs for youth and women in the value chain as well as offer investors assurance of returns,” she said.
The pact will help Tanzania’s avocados fetch good prices while reducing overdependence on the EU and Gulf countries’ markets, which are already flooded with supply from the major producing countries.
A kilogramme of avocados in China fetches around $8 compared to $6 that offered by most European markets for the same quantity.
Tanzania the third-largest producer in Africa after South Africa and Kenya is the 19th country in the world.
However, Tanzania’s avocado industry is the fastest-growing subsector in the horticultural industry, with production projected to double in the next three years due to suitable land.
