Large chain stores in Zambia, especially the those supplied by Freshmark have been accused of shunning locally produced avocados, preferring to import from their home country when locally produced ones are even much more superior.
In an interview with Zambian Business Times- ZBT Chairman of Avocado Association of Zambia Goodson Kalolo said that “Zambia has good quality avocados and what we are producing is far much better than what is currently being imported from South Africa.
Kalolo added that,” Even the second grade being produced in Zambia is far much better than the second grade from South Africa. He disclosed that Zambian farmers has adopted a special type of avocados which are called ‘hass avocados’ which is recognized by the whole world. Kalolo said that, it is hard to sell avocados to super markets because they import from South Africa.
Kalolo explained that, there is a company called ‘FreshMark’ that imports fruits and avocados from South Africa on behalf on super markets and that the company is behind the locking of the market for Zambian produce. He said that, Freshmark occasionally buy some avocados from local farmers but they only buy first grade.
He disclosed that, the Zambian second grade is far much better than the South African second grade that is being imported. Kalolo said that,” the government must put its foot down and stop importing avocados from South Africa and start buying from us local farmers instead.”
He explained that, there is no crop that can beat avocado in Zambia but it has little recognition since only few farmers are venturing into it and that the rest shun it because of lack of access to the middle and high end market in chain stores across the country. Efforts to get a comment from Freshmark proved futile by press time.
Furthermore, he disclosed that, the whole world is interested in avocado and that Mexico is a leading country which produces 2 million tons of avocado which they intern sell to America and that it is still not enough because America’s demand for avocado is very high.
Avocado is a fruit that is a fruit which is on high demand especially in European and US countries. This is because it contains a lot of nutrients like Potassium, fiber but to mention a few.
According to research, people who eat avocados tend to be healthier than people who don’t and apart from that, it also contains Antioxidants that protects the eyes.
Over the years, some Zambian farmers gained interest in growing avocado after realizing that it is on high demand, but unfortunately, there is little or no market for Zambian avocado farmers because super markets in Zambia prefer to import avocados from South Africa.
Kalolo disclosed that,” three years ago, word went around that Zambia is producing the best avocados and people from all over the word started coming to see what we were producing.
He added that,” people were impressed when they saw that indeed Zambia produces good quality avocados but were again disappointed because they were producing in small quantities and that’s when we were just starting.”
Kalolo said that, the people who came to confirm that has indeed good quality avocados said that Zambia has great potential to export but that it could only be done if they started producing in high quantity.
He said that, avocados can help boost Zambia’s economy just like in Kenya. Kalolo added that, Kenya at the moment is Africa’s leading avocado producing country and that the Kenyan government buys avocados from small scale farmers which is then exported.
Kalolo said that,” many farmers in Kenya have chosen to uproot coffee and tea trees in order to accommodate avocado trees because they have good market. Zambia can also take a leaf and support its locally grown avocados.
