201,354 tons of avocado produced. 37,871 tons exported, 94.7% of target. 8 collection centres at 20% completion in Mbeya. 12 contracted across 4 regions. 349,000 seedlings distributed. Tanzania’s newest export crop is being built infrastructure piece by infrastructure piece.
Avocado is the newest entrant in Tanzania’s major-export crop list. It is also one of the most rapidly developing. The Hass variety grows well in the Southern Highlands. International demand has been rising for years. And the FY 2025/2026 reporting cycle records an avocado sector that is being built deliberately — collection centre by collection centre, seedling by seedling, market by market.
The production picture
Tanzania produced 201,354 tons of avocado in 2025/26. Of this, 37,871 tons were exported — 94.7% of the 40,000-ton export target. Most exports went to Middle Eastern, European and Asian markets, with a growing share moving through formal cold-chain logistics rather than bulk shipping channels.
The bulk of production comes from the Southern Highlands — Mbeya, Njombe, Iringa and Songwe — where the cool highland climate supports the Hass variety that international markets prefer. Rungwe and Busokelo districts in Mbeya are particularly intensive avocado-production areas, with mature orchards now producing at commercial scale.
The collection-centre infrastructure
The most concrete infrastructure investment in avocado during FY 2025/2026 has been the construction of collection centres. 8 collection centres are under construction in Mbeya — 6 in Rungwe district and 2 in Busokelo — currently at 20% completion. A further 12 collection centres have been contracted for construction across four regions: 4 in Iringa, 1 in Rukwa, 2 in Ruvuma, and 5 in Njombe.
Collection centres matter because of the avocado supply chain’s sensitivity to handling. Avocados need to move from farm to packing facility quickly, ideally within hours of picking. Without collection centres positioned within reach of clusters of orchards, the logistics break down — fruit ripens unevenly, post-harvest losses rise, and the export quality required for premium pricing becomes hard to maintain. The collection-centre network is therefore not optional infrastructure; it is the load-bearing backbone of the export model.
Seedlings, training and water
Beyond collection centres, the FY 2025/26 reporting cycle records substantial farmer-level investment. 349,000 avocado seedlings have been distributed across Mbeya, Songwe, Iringa and Njombe — enough to establish thousands of new hectares of orchards. 3 boreholes have been drilled to support irrigation in critical orchard areas. 527 farmers and 50 extension officers have been trained on avocado-specific agronomy and post-harvest practices.
The seedling distribution number is particularly significant. Avocado is a long-cycle crop — trees take roughly three to four years to begin commercial bearing. The 349,000 seedlings distributed in 2025/26 represent the production base that will start contributing materially to total volume around 2028/29. The current production figure of 201,354 tons reflects orchards planted three to five years ago. The trajectory therefore has a long lead time, but a well-defined arc.
Cooperative-anchored production
Tanzanian avocado production is increasingly organised through cooperative structures. The Hotuba records, among others, MANG’OTO AMCOS in Makete with 54 farmer members, and Ulembwe AMCOS in Wanging’ombe with 95 members. These are smaller cooperatives by Tanzanian standards, but they reflect the appropriate scale for an emerging high-value crop where coordination of harvest timing, quality grading and onward sale is operationally critical.
COPRA — the avocado growers’ association — has hired 50 young extension officers under the BBT-Ugani window in FY 2025/26. The deployment is concentrated in the Southern Highlands and provides specialised avocado-extension capacity that did not previously exist at scale. As the avocado orchard base expands, the supporting extension density expands with it.
The 15 new market openings
On the export side, the Hotuba records that Tanzania has opened 15 new agricultural-export markets across 14 countries during the past period. While not all of these market openings are specifically for avocado, several are — and the cumulative effect is to widen the destination set for Tanzanian avocado significantly. Diversifying export markets reduces the country’s exposure to any single buyer market’s policy or price shifts, and it allows the avocado sector to scale beyond what any one destination can absorb.
The export-target trajectory is part of a broader push to lift agricultural exports from USD 3.54 billion (2023/24) toward USD 4 billion in FY 2026/27 and ultimately the USD 5 billion Vision 2030 target. Avocado is one of the export-share segments where higher-than-average growth is plausible, given the production trajectory and the international demand picture.
“Mafanikio katika zao la parachichi yanaonyesha kuwa Tanzania inaweza kuingia na kushikilia masoko ya kimataifa kwa mazao ya thamani kubwa endapo miundombinu ya kukusanya na kuhifadhi itajengwa karibu na shamba.”
— Hon. Daniel Godfrey Chongolo (MB), Waziri wa Kilimo, Hotuba ya Bajeti FY 2026/2027 (editorial composite reflecting avocado framing)
Beyond the next harvest
Avocado is unlike most other crops in this editorial pack because the structural decisions of FY 2025/26 will not show up in the production data for several years. The collection centres being built now serve fruit that will be picked years from today. The 349,000 seedlings distributed will bear at scale around 2028/29. The 50 extension officers hired in this cohort will accumulate field experience that improves their effectiveness over the next five seasons.
This is the kind of investment cycle that requires patient capital and consistent policy. Tanzania has, so far, been giving avocado both. If the pattern holds, the country will reach 2030 with an avocado sector several times its current size, anchored in collection-centre infrastructure that is being built now, planted from seedlings being distributed now, and managed by extension officers being hired now. The export-market footprint will be set by the diversification work happening in this and the next budget cycle.
Avocado was not on the radar of Tanzanian agricultural policy a decade ago. It is now one of the most carefully managed export-development efforts in the country. The trajectory matters — for farmers in the Southern Highlands, for the country’s export-diversification agenda, and for what becomes possible when policy treats a new crop with the seriousness it deserves.