Kakuzi to Harvest Avocado, Exports Mid-Next Month for Quality Purposes

To ensure quality, the agricultural company Kakuzi will begin harvesting and exporting hass avocados to China and Europe in the middle of next month.

The 2023 avocado harvesting season officially began on March 24, 2023, according to a statement from the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA)’s Horticultural Crops Directorate (HCD), which also advised producers against picking immature fruit.

Recent maturity tests, according to Kakuzi Plc Managing Director Chris Flowers, have shown that the company’s current crop planted at its Makuyu orchard in Murang’a County has not yet reached the required maturity and related quality criteria for export.

In order to guarantee that only avocados with a minimum dry matter standard of 24 percent are harvested, he noted that the company is also offering free maturity testing services to smallholder growers.

The firm’s national avocado development plans, according the MD, are harmed by the harvesting and exporting of immature avocados.

“Maturity testing has been ongoing with the important parameters of dry matter content being closely monitored on our orchards and affiliated smallholder farmers,” Flower said.

“Whilst maturity can vary from growing region to growing region at Kakuzi, the minimum dry matter we export at is 24% up to a maximum maturity of 35%, which we reach by mid-September,” he added.

Avocados should be harvested when they are fully mature, which is defined by a minimum dry matter standard of 24 percent, in accordance with HCD.

The Directorate also stated in a public notice that avocados are less likely to bruise the mesocarp when harvested at the recommended level of maturity, which is more than 24 percent dry matter content.

“By measuring that the dry matter content, and hence oil content, is correct before we export, we can provide our customers with the best eating experience of quality avocados,” Flowers stated.

“No one wants to buy an avocado you can’t eat. Our dry matter content is only 19%, so we have another month before our fruit reaches an export quality.”