Avocado processing plant nears completion
THE country’s quest to achieve a US$1 billion horticulture export industry by 2030 received a major boost with one avocado exporting firm, Cicada Agriculture, constructing a stateof-the-art pack house whose first phase is expected to be completed by end of February.
The horticulture industry is composed of avocado, citrus, nuts, vegetables, flowers, tea and coffee, berries, spices and herbs, cuttings and plants, deciduous and other fruit.
Cicada Agriculture chief operations officer Mr Brendon Scott said Cicada Katiyo had refurbished and converted the old Katiyo Tea factory into an avocado grading and packing facility with an enhanced processing capacity of 4 000kg per hour.
“It has cold room capacity of 200 tonnes and phase 1 will be completed by February 2024, just in time for the 2024 April intake. Phase 2 will take place in 2029 to double the throughput as the orchard matures,” he said.
Mr Scott said in time the pack house would serve their out-grower programme for avocado trees in the Honde Valley area that are currently in early development.
This global good agronomic practice (Global GAP) certified pack house is only for packing avocado fruits.
This development was confirmed by the local horticulture promotion board, the Horticulture Development Council (HDC) in its recent X post (formerly twitter) that said: “Cicada’s Katiyo Estate, Honde Valley, construction of a new packhouse just in time for the next avocado harvest.”
The post also said the construction of the plant showed that Zimbabwe had huge potential for horticulture growth with one of the units within the estate being the country’s biggest banana producer that was supporting farmers via out grower schemes.
The HDC’s inaugural horticulture investment forum of 2021 concluded that the country’s horticulture export sector needed to grow 30 percent annually to achieve the US$1 billion industry by 2030.
The second edition of the horticulture investment forum held recently revealed that the country’s earnings from the horticulture sector were around US$120 million per year.
The avocado hectarage is projected to reach 4 000 hectares from the current 1 260 if the US$1 billion target is to be reached by 2030.
To reach that target an investment of US$96 million is required in the avocado sub section to have an annual output of 24 000 tonnes.
The HDC’s June 2023 quarterly seasonal report indicated that there had been no substantial growth in the sector last season with the hectarage remaining the same at 1 260, though many plantations are still to come into production.
The HDC’s September 2023 quarterly seasonal report further revealed that export volumes of avocado stood at 4 610 tonnes, a figure which was slightly lower than that in 2022 over the same period.
“This is an off-year for most growers experiencing biannual bearing in their orchards. The anticipated maturity of younger orchards will sustain production, expected to reach 7 000 tonnes over the next two years.
“Production costs increased over the period due to fuel price increases while prices were under pressure due to significant volumes from Peru into the European Union (EU) market from April to July 2023,” said the report.
Among the policy recommendations, the HDC wants Government intervention in supporting the completion of the China and India trade protocols that will boost the industry and the economy.
Meanwhile, statistics from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency show that the volume of avocado exports had been on an upward trend from 2020 to 2022 rising from 5 million kg to 9 million kg.