Permanent Secretary for Forestry Gitonga Mugambi has urged farmers in Meru and across the country to embrace avocado farming, describing the crop as a key driver of wealth creation following the opening of lucrative export markets.
Speaking during a tree-planting and seedling distribution exercise, Mugambi said Kenya now has ready markets for avocados in China and Japan following trade engagements led by President William Ruto and the PS.
“Avocado is wealth. We want avocado farming to create more wealth for our farmers. When President Ruto and I visited China and Japan, we secured access to huge markets for our produce. We now need to increase production to take advantage of those opportunities,” said Mugambi.
He launched the drive by distributing about 3,000 avocado seedlings to Uruku and Ukuu locations and challenged farmers to plant more than one million trees as part of efforts to boost production and earnings.
Kenya has emerged as one of Africa’s leading avocado exporters, with exports valued at approximately $160.7 million (about Sh20.7 billion) in 2024, making the fruit one of the country’s top horticultural foreign exchange earners. Major export destinations include the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, France and Germany, while China is increasingly becoming an important market.
Mugambi said increasing the number of avocado trees would enable farmers to produce sufficient volumes to attract buyers and support the establishment of values addition industries.
“Many buyers are forced to leave because farmers harvest small quantities that cannot even fill a single pickup. Our task is to plant more trees and increase production,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the locations could plant more than 10 million avocado trees in the coming years, creating a foundation for an avocado processing industry, create jobs and expanding income opportunities for farmers.
Meru County is among Kenya’s leading avocado-producing regions, with more than 41,000 small-scale farmers engaged in avocado farming.
In 2023, the county produced over 38,000 metric tonnes of avocados valued at about Sh876 million, making the crop one of the county’s most important fruit value chains.
Besides avocados, Mugambi encouraged farmers to continue investing in dairy farming, saying the sector remains a major source of income for households.
“There is money in milk and we must continue creating avenues for farmers to earn more from dairy farming,” he said.
The PS cited a recent milk farmers’ payout of more than Sh30 million in the area facilitated through dairy cooperative leadership, saying it demonstrated the potential of the sector to improve livelihoods.
Mugambi further announced plans to distribute cocoa seedlings and sandalwood trees as part of efforts to diversify income sources for farmers.
He described sandalwood as a high-value tree crop with significant commercial potential.
“Sandalwood is the new gold. After about ten years, a single tree can fetch up to Sh300,000. Farmers should take advantage of this opportunity and invest in tree growing as a long-term source of wealth,” he said.
The government has intensified promotion of avocado farming, tree planting and value addition as part of broader efforts to increase agricultural exports, boost farmers’ incomes and expand Kenya’s share in international markets.
Edited by John Majau
