“There is strength in numbers” and one avocado farmer from Kieni village, Mathira Constituency knows this all too well. John Githaiga, who has planted avocado for more than 30 years, has teamed up with fellow farmers and now they are tapping into the lucrative export market.
In 2008, he approached some exporting companies as an individual but they turned him away. He was advised to form a group so that the companies would purchase the avocados in high volumes.
“I also realised that while on my own, I could only get negligible profits, but as a team, the prospects are brighter. That is what informed my decision to farm as a group,” he says.
He approached his neighbours and other villagers and they formed a 15-member group which they named 'Gamu Avocado Growers Group'.
Now the farmers farm on their separate farm, but combine their harvest and sell as a group.
The profits are shared according to the percentage of fruit each person has brought on board.
Prior to forming the group, he also recorded loss after loss because of middlemen. “Brokers early made me abandon this venture because they offered bad prices. They would offer me Sh1 per fruit instead of the market price of Sh3,” he explains.
He says middlemen often employed underhand tactics which saw him record small profits.
“They (brokers) often came to the farm to harvest the fruits late in the evening and they stayed on till night so they would use devious ways to harvest more than I was willing to sell,” Githaiga notes.
But that is now behind him because of the power of numbers. Though he has now broken even in his venture, he says his journey in avocado farming has been dotted with highs and lows.
“I first came to learn about avocado farming way back in the 70s when I was living in Embu. From my interaction with avocado farmers, I realised it was possible to earn a good living from this fruits,” Githaiga tells Smart Harvest team.
After that first encounter, he went and bought the seedlings and planted on his three-acre Nyeri farm.
Today, he has more than 100 avocado trees majority of which are the Hass variety, and the rest are the Fuente variety which are seen as less superior.
Recently the group landed a lucrative deal with an exporting company which agreed to pay the farmers Sh 7 for each hass fruit they deliver.
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“I usually pay Sh1 for each fruit picked by the person I employ to harvest the fruit, which means I make a profit of Sh6 on each Hass fruit I deliver,” Githaiga notes.
According to the farmer, Hass variety is popular because it has a longer shelf life which makes it more suitable for export market.
Additionally, it is disease-resistant and remains on the tree even after it is ripe unlike the Fuente variety which falls to the ground one it ripens, that leads to losses for the farmers.
Githaiga also says another advantage of growing the Hass avocado is the fact that even when they are ready for harvest, they still look unripe so fruit thieves rarely steal them.
“Every six months I plant more Hass trees and to replace the remaining Fuente which I intend to do away with completely,” Githaiga says.
The avocados take three years to mature after they have been planted and require only five litres of water every two months through drip irrigation.
At full maturity, each Hass avocado tree produces from 30 to 60 fruits depending on the level of care given to the tree.
Harvesting season is usually between February and April each year and fruits are bought and sold depending on their sizes which range between 10 to 26.
“The best quality fruits are selected for export while the smaller avocados are sold at Sh12 per kilogram. Therefore none of my fruits go to waste,” Githaiga says.
Githaiga says he cannot compare the benefits he gets from avocados to those of coffee.
“I only need to tend my avocado trees twice a year and then I start reaping the benefits. But coffee farming is labour intensive throughout the year and yet I will only earn as little as Sh 40 per kilo,” Githaiga laments.
His parting shot?
Githaiga says to reap high returns from horticultural products farmers need to eliminate middle men and brokers and form groups to market their fruits directly to exporters.
“It took me a two decades to make meaningful amount of money from my avocado trees but now I am glad I made the right decision of forming a group to market and sell our fruits as a team,” Githaiga says.