Bashe blacklists avocado buyer over harvesting immature produce

Njombe. The government yesterday directed regional authorities in Njombe to ban Kandia Fresh Company from purchasing and selling of avocados within and outside the country.

The directives were issued by Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe due to the company’s alleged involvement in the purchase of immature avocados and dumping them at the Njombe Town Council dumpsite.

Mr Bashe ordered the arrest of a company’s employee, David Sifuna Barasa, who was involved in the purchase of the avocados in question from two middlemen and without permits.

When asked by Mr Bashe, why he bought immature avocados, Mr Barasa said that the products were harvested in good condition but they were poorly handled.

“They were ripe when harvested but during transport, rain poured on them. Others were transported by motorbikes,” he said.

When asked whether he had a permit to buy avocados from farmers, he confirmed that he did not.

It was at that point that Mr Bashe asked law enforcers to arrest him, which they did.

Available information shows that until January 8 this year, Mr Barasa had bought 11,423 kilogrammes of avocados in Njombe. However 5,200 kilogrammes of the products were of poor quality due to being harvested while unripe, and thus were dumped.

The remaining 6,223 kilogrammes were transported to Makambako for transportation abroad.

Mr Bashe remarked that such actions were adversely affecting the quality of avocados from Tanzania in foreign markets. “If we allow unripe avocados to be harvested, the situation will worsen,” warned the minister.

“I want the company to be blacklisted immediately,” he said.

He directed agricultural extension officers and other government officials to cultivate the culture of paying routine visits to farms and prohibiting the harvesting of unripe avocados.

Njombe District Commissioner Kissa Kasongwa said that the two middlemen have also been arrested for crop cess evasion and purchase of produce without a permit from the government.

They were also fined Sh 300,000.

Avocado is quickly becoming Tanzania’s new green gold, with available figures showing that the country exported close to 9,000 tonnes valued at $30 million in 2020 alone.

This is a massive leap from almost zero seven years ago.

Europe imports 85% of Tanzanian avocado shipments. France imported the most, followed by the Netherlands and the U.K.