FAO is respiratory new life into Tanzania’s avocado worth chain by way of innovation, strategic funding, and inclusive progress.
Tanzania owes a lot of this success to its smallholder farmers, who domesticate practically 90 per cent of the nation’s crop.
Avocado exports surged by 74% between 2021 and 2023 — leaping from 15,432 tonnes to 26,826 tonnes.
In Tanzania, a quiet inexperienced revolution is taking root—one avocado at a time. Underneath the banner of the One Nation One Precedence Product (OCOP) initiative, Tanzania is championing the avocado as a flagship crop to drive sustainable agricultural transformation.
The initiative, which is backed by the Meals and Agriculture Group of the United Nations (FAO), is respiratory new life into the avocado worth chain by way of innovation, strategic funding, and inclusive progress.
In the mean time, Tanzania stands tall amongst greater than 30 African nations within the OCOP programme, with avocado chosen as its signature crop because of its rising international enchantment and alignment with nationwide methods for high-value horticultural exports.
Already ranked amongst Africa’s prime three avocado producers—alongside Kenya and South Africa—Tanzania owes a lot of this success to its smallholder farmers, who domesticate practically 90 per cent of the nation’s crop throughout areas from Arusha and Kilimanjaro to Mbeya and Njombe.
Because the nation scales up efforts to spice up yield, improve high quality, and unlock international market entry, the common-or-garden avocado is quick turning into an emblem of alternative for rural communities—and a key ingredient in Tanzania’s sustainable growth story.
Avocado exports up 74% between 2021 and 2023
Based on the Tanzania Horticultural Affiliation (TAHA), exports of the nutrient-rich fruit surged by a powerful 74 per cent between 2021 and 2023 — leaping from 15,432 tonnes to 26,826 tonnes.
Throughout the identical interval, export earnings practically doubled, hovering from $44.3 million to $77.3 million. A serious milestone got here in November 2024, when Tanzania celebrated its first-ever avocado cargo to China, unlocking a profitable new market in Asia.
This momentum aligns seamlessly with the One Nation One Precedence Product (OCOP) initiative, which enhances nationwide growth methods by championing sustainable manufacturing and inexperienced worth chains. At its core, OCOP empowers nations like Tanzania to construct inclusive and resilient agrifood techniques, enhancing practices throughout the whole worth chain — from farm-level manufacturing to storage, processing, and worldwide advertising.
Trying forward, Tanzania has set its sights excessive: it goals to extend avocado manufacturing from 190,000 tonnes in 2018 to 290,000 tonnes by 2025. Reaching this goal will demand strategic investments — notably in high-quality seedlings, fashionable irrigation, environment friendly storage and processing infrastructure, and up-to-date harvesting applied sciences. Equally essential is the necessity to bolster the talents of agricultural extension employees, who play a pivotal function in supporting smallholder farmers and sustaining this inexperienced progress trajectory.
Remodeling agrifood techniques
The OCOP initiative gives a platform for data sharing and collaboration throughout nations. To this point, 33 African nations are collaborating, every specializing in one particular agricultural product. The initiative is country-led, with FAO providing technical assist and facilitating partnerships.
The OCOP initiative is aligned with FAO’s imaginative and prescient for extra environment friendly, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood techniques for higher manufacturing, higher diet, a greater surroundings and a greater life, leaving nobody behind.
Learn additionally: Why Tanzania’s avocados are taking a agency root in international markets
