{"id":40151,"date":"2023-04-20T17:12:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T17:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop"},"modified":"2023-04-20T17:39:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T17:39:16","slug":"inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop","title":{"rendered":"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Hundreds of thousands of avocado trees are being planted every year across Rwanda, as part of the efforts to make most of the fruit that fetches billions of dollars for some countries.<\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s avocado farming industry is quite young, having started about 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

Despite this, avocado is one of the agricultural exports that are expected to increase exponentially so that by 2026, the volumes will triple to around 16,000 tons per year.<\/p>\n

Considering the current trends in planting trees, some farmers even think that the projections will be exceeded.<\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s avocado farming industry is quite young, having started about 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we will beat the targets,\u201d Bonnette Ishimwe, the owner of First Fruits Company, a Kirehe-based avocado farm, told The New Times.<\/p>\n

Partnering with farmers who offer their land to be used for collective avocado growing, First Fruits has planted 262 hectares of new avocado trees, 85 of which will be ready for harvesting in June next year. The company expects to extend its farming area to 300 hectares in the future.<\/p>\n

A single hectare of avocado trees can yield up to 20 tons per year.<\/p>\n

Just like First Fruits, many companies and investors around the country have planted new avocado trees that will be harvested within the next two to three years. Such companies include SOUK Farms, one of the largest growers and exporters of fresh horticultural produce from Rwanda.<\/p>\n

SOUK owns one of the largest private avocado farms in the country. In an interview with The New Times, Seun Rasheed, the company\u2019s managing director, spoke about the \u201cbig foreign market\u201d that the fruit has.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome big companies in Europe and the Middle-East can import up to 15-20 containers a week. One container has about 24 tons. That means that on a weekly basis, a company can import almost 200 tons,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest issue currently is actually supply,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Rasheed hinted on Rwanda\u2019s advantage on the global avocado market since its harvest season complements key exporting countries. The local harvest season starts around September and ends in March or April, a time when countries like South Africa and Kenya are not producing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd even when you consider South American countries like Mexico, Peru and Colombia, they are not producing when we are producing. Their season is somewhat close to that of South Africa and Kenya,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Assinapol Ndereyimana, the acting horticulture program coordinator at the Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB), told The New Times that people are interested in avocado farming and RAB is putting in effort to support them, especially in terms of technical know-how.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people are interested, especially those with big pieces of land. There are also some with small pieces of land who are deciding to combine them so that they can farm collectively. For example, in Kayonza, there are farmers who put together their pieces of land to make a 400-hectare avocado farm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to agronomical knowledge, RAB provides seedlings to farmers, complementing the work done by agricultural organisations like One-Acre Fund, which is arguably the biggest supplier of avocado seedlings in the country.<\/p>\n

Last year, for example, One-Acre Fund produced 450,000 seedlings for Hass and Fuerte avocados. They hope to produce the same amount this year.<\/p>\n

Challenges<\/p>\n

As farmers continue to put effort into increasing production, there are issues related to the difficulty involved in having their farms certified for premium markets.<\/p>\n

For instance, the European Union demands for strict requirements before it can certify a farm to send produce to its territory. Due to this, much of Rwanda\u2019s avocado exports go to Middle-East countries because they have more lenient certification requirements.<\/p>\n

In addition to this, Rwanda mostly depends on air-freight which carries less volumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you were to fill up a whole plane with avocado, you might only be able to get 25 to 30 tons on one flight. There is a very big market out there and that market can only be served satisfactorily by sea-freight,\u201d SOUK Farm\u2019s Rasheed said.<\/p>\n

In November last year, NAEB launched a program that will have Rwanda\u2019s horticultural exports go to foreign markets via sea-freight. Though it has not yet picked up, the idea is that in the future, sea-freight will be leveraged to increase the country\u2019s export volumes.<\/p>\n

Adding value?<\/p>\n

Avocados can be processed into various products including avocado oil and cosmetics. People in the avocado farming industry believe it\u2019s a good idea to add value to their produce before exporting it. However, Rasheed says that first, the focus should be put on increasing the volumes that the country is producing as opposed to investing in infrastructure for manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Besides, he said there is also a need to ensure that the produce from the farms is of good quality so that the \u201creject rate\u201d is reduced.<\/p>\n

Reject rate in this case refers to the number of fruits or vegetables that cannot be bought by the importing companies due to factors including their appearance or size, among other factors that do not meet their standards of quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reject-rate is high. We need to find ways of reducing it. An avocado can be okay on the inside but if it has a lot of black spots, it will not be exported. These spots might be due to farm practices that we need to improve,\u201d Rasheed said.<\/p>\n

According to NAEB, to leverage the full potential of Rwandan agricultural exports, there must be measures to strategically address challenges related to marketing, private sector investments, quality production and productivity, and airfreight, sea-freight, and ground logistics across priority value chains.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Hundreds of thousands of avocado trees are being planted every year across Rwanda, as part of the efforts to make most of the fruit that fetches billions of dollars for some countries. Rwanda\u2019s avocado farming industry is quite young, having started about 10 years ago. Despite this, avocado is one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":40150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-40151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nInside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hundreds of thousands of avocado trees are being planted every year across Rwanda, as part of the efforts to make most o ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hundreds of thousands of avocado trees are being planted every year across Rwanda, as part of the efforts to make most o ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-20T17:12:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-20T17:39:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-20T17:12:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-20T17:39:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop\"},\"wordCount\":951,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop\",\"name\":\"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-20T17:12:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-20T17:39:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Hundreds of thousands of avocado trees are being planted every year across Rwanda, as part of the efforts to make most o ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":666,\"caption\":\"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop - Rwanda","description":"Hundreds of thousands of avocado trees are being planted every year across Rwanda, as part of the efforts to make most o ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop","og_description":"Hundreds of thousands of avocado trees are being planted every year across Rwanda, as part of the efforts to make most o ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2023-04-20T17:12:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-20T17:39:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":666,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop","datePublished":"2023-04-20T17:12:22+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-20T17:39:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop"},"wordCount":951,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Rwanda","Rwanda"],"articleSection":["all news","Economy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop","name":"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg","datePublished":"2023-04-20T17:12:22+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-20T17:39:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Hundreds of thousands of avocado trees are being planted every year across Rwanda, as part of the efforts to make most o ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681995242.84.jpg","width":1000,"height":666,"caption":"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/inside-rwandas-plan-to-make-avocado-a-major-export-crop#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Inside Rwanda\u2019s plan to make avocado a major export crop"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}