By FarmBizAfrica reporters

Kenya’s Horticultural Crop Directorate this year issued over Sh5bn-worth of export certificates during its own avocado export ban, moving into heavy non-compliance and triggering a nationwide avocado shortage after early exports that have caused reputation damage for Kenya globally.

The HCD, which has refused to comment on the more than 3,000 export certificates issued during the ban beyond acknowledging that many were non-compliant, has denied stating that it would take action to pursue wrongdoers, despite the industry supporting more than a million farmers

Kenya was until recently a world player in avocados, accounting for around 6 per cent of global production, but industry-wide sources claim the industry changed two years ago, following the introduction of a closed season to prevent the exporting of unripe fruits, which coincided with the non-complaint authorisation of heavy exporting by a handful of leading companies during the bans. 

These companies have sourced country-wide during the last two bans, and quickly delivered a reputation for Kenyan avocados in world markets as unripe, rubbery, bitter, and pest-ridden.

In a weeks-long investigation, FarmBizAfrica tracked down large consignments of banned exports to the Netherlands and onwards into European supermarket chains, where key quality controllers shared dated photos of the fruits, together with its branded packaging, and photos showing the fruits’ low quality.

In Kenya, Waithaka Wagura, CEO of the Avocado Exporters Association of Kenya (AEAK) confirmed: “Yes, it happened and there is an artificial shortage of avocado as the season opened.” 

The season additionally reopened almost a month later than normal, on 2nd April, locking out hundreds of legitimate exporters as orchards were emptied ahead of and into ripening.

Wagura said AEAK had raised formal complaints to the regulators. 

KepHIS Managing Director Theophilus Mutui, and the AEAK, both explained that legitimate exemptions were only for second-flushes of crops, usually only from Western Kenya and the North Rift. That region produces around 30 per cent of the country’s avocados across its large first flush and the much smaller second flush. The second flush from Western and North Rift is normally equivalent to around 3 per cent of the country’s harvest. 

But, in 2026, during just 12 weeks of the closed season, the HCD approved Sh5.832bn of avocado exports weighing 33,205 tonnes, according to tentative figures released by KenTrade. This volume is equivalent to as much as a third of Kenya’s normal annual avocado production across all regions and both flushes.

The ban also requires that for the small number of exports purportedly permissed, each must have a farm inspection to confirm the fruits they are seeking to export are ripe. FarmBizAfrica found more than seven sites where avocados were sourced and exported during the ban without farm inspections. 

Despite the huge scale of the in-ban exporting, the HCD claimed to stakeholders that it had further extended the ban because the crop was late and limited due to late rains.

In reality, said one industry CEO, naming three large avocado exporters, “these companies never stopped exporting, and they have left the country with scanty supplies of fit avocados.” 

“People are just quiet about it, yet people’s jobs and the whole industry shall be heavily impacted because of the action of the few exporters, AFA and other regulators are very aware of the exports done, because they are the ones who issue the license for the same. They are hurting everyone in the industry.”

The shortage is now affecting almost 300 exporters locked out from exporting when fruits were available and the entire oil processing industry, which has recently benefitted from major, including international investments. “Currently, there are not enough fruits to meet the demand and we are hoping that in July during the second session of the avocado season, more fruits will have matured,” said Wagura.

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The reputation damage for Kenyan avocados on the off-season exports has also been severe, with industry sources claiming the same events last year triggered the later rerouting of Kenyan avocados via Morocco. Claimed avocado exports more than doubled from Morocco last year to 141,000 tonnes, according to FAO data, from less than 60,000 tonnes a year earlier. This amounted to more than Morocco’s entire avocado production, lending support to the claim of rerouting of Kenyan avocados to shake off the brand damage from Kenyan-sourced fruit being unripe.

On 31st March, HCD Director Christine Chesaro stated at a stakeholders meeting to address the breaches that a list of exporters who had been issued export certificates in breach of the ban had been compiled, and action might be taken, but declined to confirm any action speaking directly to FarmBizAfrica on 6th April. The director said the HCD needed to ask the exporters who had breached to see if they would give permission to have their names released.

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