Avocado from Kenya

Avo Kwanza Ltd is a collaboration business that has adopted a hands on approach from the farm up to delivery and has all chains of the supply functional whilst partnering with companies run by interconnected shareholders. The company has built a solid client base in France with customers such as Capexo, KSC and AFJ, and seeks to move into emerging markets such as Asia and the Middle East.

The company has a large cold storage area where fruits are sorted and packed. The fruits are packaged in 4kg/10kg reinforced carton boxes and the oil is packaged in flexi tanks or IBC’s for shipment. The fruits are stored in cold storage rooms in boxes suitable for avocado shipments, which have breathing space for fruits. The oil is stored in large drums, tank tanners and barrels. A container of fruits takes 1 full day and the oil takes around 7 days to produce and prepare for shipment, with most of the shipping being done by sea and air freight as well.

Avo Kwanza Ltd has a strict quality process, ensuring that no fruits with skin diseases/defects or premature fruits with a low dry matter quantity are exported. The Kenyan horticultural committee conducts regular inspections and quality checks so that only high-quality mature fruit is exported. They also run regular hygiene and food safety tests at packing/processing facilities. The company has a Futura high-tech packing machine which sorts fruits by weight and quality along with a Felix dry matter tester to ensure the fruits are of good quality. The company also has a skilled workforce that is responsible for removing damaged fruits which are not of export quality and doing the final packing into relevant export boxes. The company also holds Global GAP For Farm and Packhouse and GRASP certificates.

Avo Kwanza Ltd has an avocado factory in Thika that is 2400 m2, with a new larger factory of around 4000 m2 still under production. Kenya has suitable weather for growing avocados, as it is sunny for most of the year, from December – January and June – October, with rains occurring from March-May and in November. Harvesting occurs between March and August, and the company currently has 22MT of avocados available. Manual agricultural practices are used for cropping and yielding, based on the advice of the country’s agricultural bodies, with the view of incorporating farming technologies in the future to improve yields.

Avo Kwanza Ltd offers high-quality conventional Fuerte and Hass Avocado varieties for consumption and further processing. The Hass Avocado is one of the most famous avocado varieties in the world, due to its intense flavor and very creamy flesh. The Fuerte Avocado is another popular variety with an elongated form and skin that can be easily separated from the flesh. The avocados are 14-26 in size and take about one week to ripen, after which they have a durability of 2 weeks. In oil form, the product has a shelf life of 6 months when stored at 20 degrees Celsius. Samples of the fruit are available upon request.