Avocado

Kenya is the leading exporter of avocado in Africa(HCD,2020) and among the top 10 world's largest exporters although it only exported 10% of its total avocado production. Between 2019 and 2020, the area under the crop increased from 20,240ha to 26,482ha in 2020 while production increased from 420,430tons to 500,274tons, 31 percent and 19 percent increase respectively. The value on the other hand increased from Kshs9billion in 2019 to Kshs9.4billion in 2020 In Kenya, Nakuru County is the 3 rd leading exporter after Murang’a and Kiambu Counties (HCD, 2020). All its 11 subcounties have great potential for Avocado production. Currently, major producing subcounties are Subukia, Bahati, Njoro, Gilgil, Kuresoi South and Molo. Since 2017, The Nakuru County Government has aggressively promoted avocado production by providing free quality planting material to the farming community. This has led to a rapid increase to the area under the crop. By 2021, the county reported an estimated hactarage of 1553ha (mature trees) yielding 24,501 MT valued at Kshs701, 447,587. The Project for Small Holder Empowerment and Agribusiness Promotion (SHEP Biz) targets to work with value chain actors from the 6 main producing areas to improve and strengthen the value chain by addressing the major challenges A meeting with different actors in the avocado value chain in the County established a Nakuru Avocado Platform to spearhead issues affecting the Industry in the County. The platform members are drawn from all the value chain nodes namely inputs, production, marketing and export