The Kisii County government plans to revive the stalled Kisii avocado factory in a bid to provide market for farmers in the region through value addition to produce juice, cooking oil and syrup extracts.

The Sh150m factory which was first launched in 2013 by the county in partnership with Turkish and Australian investors has been under construction for over three years.

The county’s agriculture executive Esman Onsarigo said last week that the factory would soon be operational bur did not indicate the exact timeline.

“Once complete, the factory will have the capacity to process 80 tons of avocados daily; farmers can start preparing to supply the factory with the produce,” he said.

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In August this year, farmbiz.glorycarefoundation.org reported that Kenya became the largest exporter of avocados in Africa in 2017, exporting a record volume of 51, 507 tons to the world. South Africa, traditionally the lead exporter of the world fruit from the Agriculture-rich continent, relinquished the position and trailed Kenya for the first time ever in history with 43, 492 tons.

Kenya’s pool of the biggest importers includes the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and more recently, the Russian Federation. The UAE tops the list with some 12, 041 tons for the 2017 timeline. Saudi Arabia is the country’s fourth importer with some 4, 874 tons worth of imports in 2017. The Russian Federation currently holds the 5th position in trade volumes that have culminated at 4,171 tons in 2017.

The second, third, and sixth major export markets for Kenya avocados are all in Europe. The Netherlands leads the pack with 10, 556 tons of the fruit from the 2017 statistics. France is the third biggest importer: its net volume stood at 10, 423 tons in the same year. The United Kingdom and Spain close the top 7 with volumes that verged on 2,944 and 1,734 tons respectively in 2017.