Kenya Starts Export of Avocados to India

Recently, Kenya began shipping avocado fruit to India, and the first shipment has already arrived. At Mumbai, the first shipment has arrived. On the sidelines of the inaugural event here, Irene Oloo, the deputy high commissioner of Kenya to India, told PTI, "We ensure that many more metric tonnes of avocados will land.

This is the first "sensitive and short self-life" agricultural product that the African nation has been granted export authorization for. On August 16, 2023, after eight years of discussions, approval was granted, according to her.

Tea and coffee, which have a considerably greater shelf life than avocado fruit, are exported from Kenya. Since "we needed to meet the strict Indian quality standards when it lands here," she said, it took a while to acquire approval.

She continued by saying that this would facilitate access to other kinds of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. Oloo thought that the beginning of avocado imports from Kenya will aid in reducing the imbalance in trade between the two nations.

With a cultivated area of around 26,000 hectares and a production of 4, 16,000 tonnes in 2021—double that of 2016—Kenya is the sixth-largest producer of avocados in the world.

Based on Export Import Data, about 23% of Kenya's avocado production is exported, with destinations including the Netherlands, the US, China, Spain, the UK, the UAE, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt.