Analysis and Studies - Products analysis
What are the main opportunities/threats of exporting African avocados to Europe?
March 3rd 2022
The European market for avocados, and consequently their production, continues to grow. Africa is assuming an important role in this trend, even if neither approaching the levels achieved by Latin America. Keep reading to know more about the opportunities and challenges for African countries arising from exporting to Europe in this market.
Some useful data
As previously mentioned, Latin America is the biggest exporter of the product to Europe: in fact, it supplies almost 75% of EU imports, which totally were valued at 2.15 billion euros in 2020. The main exporter is Peru.
On the other hand, the main African suppliers to Europe are South Africa, Kenya and Morocco. Kenya leads the supply from East Africa, which export value to Europe amounted at 148 million euros in 2020.
Both areas' export grew at a rate of around 15% YoY, from 2019 to 2020.
Main opportunities
The main opportunities for African countries in this market concern seasonality. While Peru and other Latin zones start to trade avocados not earlier than April, in Africa such goods are already available around February. The same happens in the later part of the season: Peru in normal conditions closes its shipments around half August, while most African producers can go at least one month further. Taking into consideration strategically this aspect can make the difference for future growth in both export quantities and value.
Main challenges
In Africa, most production and exports come from smallholder farms, that have improved their processes in the last years; also technical assistance to these farms is now sufficient. However, many complaints from partners and customers were received regarding the quality of the products. Poor growing practices in some periods of the year can increase the chance of disease arousal.
In addition, the production methods can differ among countries and farmers and, being African production so diversified, there's a lack of homogeneity of the fruit. Moreover, these countries strive to be acquire the certifications regarding sustainable and safety standards, that are more and more in demand.
For the above mentioned reasons, exports suffer reputation issues.
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