Alex Rose-Innes
The COVID-19 pandemic had been cited as the reason for the demise of even luxury brands across First World Countries, but in Africa, excellent harvests had been seen despite the harsh lockdown conditions.
Kenya’s exports of avocados exceeded 64 000 tonnes this year and in Cameroon, banana farmers are smiling as exports rose by 581 tons year-on-year in October. In 2019, before the lockdown, the highest recorded avocado exports amounted to 43 000 tonnes, 21 000 tonnes less than in 2020.
Avocado growers in the Uasin Gishu County in Kenya said this year’s exports were higher than last year’s and it is expected that the supply grown on 2 000 acres of land would not be able to meet the high demand for avocados locally and overseas. This is good news for farmers who had only started out in avocado farming just before the pandemic and lockdown struck the agricultural export industry.
Not to be outdone, Ethiopian Hass avocados had made inroads into the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabian markets. It had been reported that there was a huge demand for fruit and vegetables from Ethiopia.
According to vegetable and fruit farmers in Africa, despite the fact that local restaurants and retailers had to close shop during the lockdown, the international market had grown as never before as the public demand for healthy food spiked as never before.
The Cameroon Banana Exporters Association told FreshPlaza that close to 17 000 tonnes of bananas were exported last month, significantly more than 15 900 tonnes the previous year. The country’s state-owned agricultural industry had resumed trading in June this year after having stopped exporting two years ago.
And good news for South Africa is that the Australian agri producer, United Exports would invest more than R1 billion Rand in SA’s agriculture over the next five years. Especially rural areas would benefit from the projected more than 8 000 sustainable jobs which would be created with this investment. The UE
The United Exports (UE) value chain already supports more than 10,000 jobs at the peak of the blueberry growing season and with the growing international demand for blueberries, local growers would reap a lasting benefit. So popular had blueberries become that a special emoji had been launched for this healthy fruit.
