A major step towards Beijing’s promise to let local-grown fruits to enter the market China has chosen a selection of the Tanzanian avocado farms as well as packing houses for audits of compliance. Every fresh avocado shipped to China are required to comply with Beijing phytosanitary regulations and laws as well as safety requirements and be completely free from quarantined bugs.

Ministry of Agriculture has formally informed TAHA which is the industry’s horticultural leader about the General Administration of Chinese Customs (GACC) in charge of overseeing food safety has chosen three of the plantations to be inspected via video which will give hope to farmers to export the avocado into the highly lucrative Asian market in the near future.

An official from an expert from the Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticide Authority (TPHPA) stated that the inspection video for the first avocado plantations is scheduled to be completed at the time of the next harvest season which is scheduled to begin in March 2024.

“If everything goes as planned then the video inspections of the farms that were tested will open ways for other local plantations to present similar inspections as an element of Chinese review of access to the market for avocados,” he explained.

The current exports to Tanzania of avocados exceed 20,000 tons that are worth close to $30 million. Tanzania is estimated that it produces 47,000 tonnes of avocados that can be exported each year.

Source: dailynews.co.tz