Kenyan Avocados
Our Kenyan Avocados
Kenya has in recent years gained global recognition as one of the world’s leading producers in Avocado production. The country has doubled its avocado production over the past five years. According to the latest official FAO statistics, Kenya is now the world’s sixth-largest avocado producer, with a planted area of nearly 26,000 Ha and a production of 417,000 metric tons in 2021, which has since doubled from 2016.
According to the report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) “Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030”, Avocados will become the most traded fruit by 2030.
The meteoric rise of 20% per annum on average has been achieved largely through the expansion of avocado plantations by an average of 14% per annum, with yields increasing by about 6%. The sector is still dominated by small-scale farmers owning less than 2 hectares – they produce about 70% of all Kenyan avocados.
About 23% of production, 95,000 tones, is exported. Kenya surpassed South Africa in 2021 to become the continent’s largest exporter of avocados. Kenya accounts for 82% of East African Community avocado fruit exports. Kenya’s main export markets are the EU, in particular the Netherlands, France, Spain, the UK, and Germany (80%). In Europe, avocados have become the second most valuable imported fruit from developing countries, surpassing grapes.
Advantages Of Sourcing from Kenya to the UK Market
Apart from their remarkable taste and creamy texture, Kenya has additional characteristics that buyers can take advantage of such as:
- Longer season that lasts from March to October giving access to a higher amount of fruit.
- Avocado farming is being aggressively encouraged in most parts of the country to be able to ensure continuous supply of good quality avocados all year through.
- Since most of Kenya is covered by a sub-tropical climate this favors consistency of quality and supply.
- Production costs are low therefore avocados from Kenya are competitively priced.
- Avocados from Kenya have short transit times when compared to avocados from Peru & South Africa to the U.K.
Varieties
Hass
Though there are hundreds of varieties of avocados, the Hass avocado has become the benchmark avocado for commercial production. Its long growing season, prolific fruit production, and shipping tolerance are virtues that make the Hass the standard market avocado. It is the avocado that the general public identify as simply, an avocado.
Fuerte
The Fuerte avocado is often recognized as the archetypal avocado, green in color, pear-like in shape. It has smooth, medium-thin skin that peels easily, with dense, pale green flesh. It is marginally oily with a rich, creamy flavor and notes of hazelnut, it is also a type of a green skin avocado meaning that it doesn’t change the color even when ripe.
Ellice Limited: Avocado Division
Ellice Ltd Ltd is a UK-based company acting as agents who engage in the export and import of premium Kenyan avocados and other fresh produce.
The avocados we export are organically grown in the most ideal climatic conditions in Kenya. We source avocados from our contracted farmers all over the country. We strive to ensure that all our out-grower farmers are proud and happy to be associated with us.
Quality Assurance
Our avocados are cultivated with uncompromising dedication to quality and excellence in freshness. We guarantee optimum maturity of avocados by embracing modern technology in maturity testing using Avocado Quality Meter testing before harvesting and shipping. We also give competitive pricing to our customers without compromising on quality and adopt the use of modern grading machines to achieve the desired avocado weight. The fruit is also graded to help eliminate any internal or physical quality defects.
Packaging and Transportation
We pack avocado fruit in cartons for both air and sea freights packed in dry wooden pallet cartons. Each pallet for sea freight takes 276 cartons while each pallet for air freight takes 144 cartons. For air freight, avocados take relatively 9hrs to U.K, for sea freight it takes about 29 days to the U.K.
The avocados in the pack house go through accurate machine selection. The avocados are classified according to dry matter, size, color, and external skin defects.
