Post by Trade facilitator on Oct 14, 2022 9:09:05 GMT 1
What Nigeria Can Do To Break Into The Lucrative Mango Export Market: Let Us Study Kenya’s Experience – Part 2
In the first part of this article we brought to you what happened to Kenya as regards mango export. The country has been taking the issue of mango export especially to the EU and UK very seriously because that is where the real money is.
We are going to look at what Kenya did to come out of the problem and start exporting their mango again.
In that article we told you that Nigeria is ranked the world’s 10th largest producer of mangoes; we produce about 800,000 metric tonnes of the fruit annually. This comes to about 3 percent of the world’s total mango production. We are the largest producer of mango in Africa. But in 2022 Nigeria ranks the 6th largest producer of mango in the world.
Most of the mango produced in Nigeria are consumed locally or wasted while other countries are making millions in foreign exchange from the fruit they produce very little.
According to data from HCD, Kenya is the fourth largest producer of mango in Africa, our dear Nigeria is the largest producer in Africa; still nothing is coming out of the business as regards export. There is no serious history of mango export in Nigeria. How can Kenya , the 4th largest producer of mango in Africa, be making so much money from the commodity while Nigeria, the largest producer in Africa, makes nothing?
What was the problem with Kenya’s mango production and export?
Just look at this cry “Fruit flies have destroyed our gold!” said Phyllis Waema, chairperson of the Makueni County Fruit Processors Cooperative Society. “We have been investing a lot in taking care of our mango orchards only for fruit flies to destroy more than 50% of the produce.”
The country had a problem with fruit flies in the mango farms and the country decided by the country’s agricultural authorities to place a ban on the export of mangoes to the EU and UK in 2013. They decided to deal with the fruit flies by themselves without allowing the EU countries to discover the menace by themselves and placed a ban on export of mangoes from Kenya.
This is exactly the same problem currently faced by Nigeria in all the states that produce mangoes in large quantities. But what did our government do to solve the problem?
What did Kenya do to solve the problem?
Since the ban, however, the Horticulture Crops Directorate in Kenya has created pest free areas or areas of low pest preference especially in the main mango producing zones of Makueni, Machakos, Meru and parts of Baringo. There has been a significant reduction of the level of these pests and this is what has necessitated the country to think of re-entering the market once more.
The country’s agricultural authorities said “For 8 years Kenya had self-imposed the export ban because of the presence of fruit flies on its mangoes. The efforts of the whole sector have just been rewarded; the EU has approved the resumption of exports.”
The Campaign: A Coordinated Public-Private Effort to Scale up Technology Adoption
For Kenyan mangoes to get back onto shelves in the EU and United Kingdom (UK) markets, pest-free areas (PFA) and areas of low pest prevalence (ALPP) needed to be created to enhance competitiveness in both domestic and export markets.
USAID’s Feed the Future Kenya Crops and Dairy Market Systems (KCDMS) Activity formed the Mango Technical Working Group (TWG) to coordinate efforts and mobilize resources of like-minded stakeholders to create a PFA and ALPP.
On January 22, 2020, KCDMS launched a Fruit Fly-Free Zone campaign dubbed “Komesha Fruit Fly.” The campaign aims to increase export market share for mangoes by 30% by 2023, create new jobs for 240 spray service providers and unlock access to up to KES 10 billion (US$98 million) through the export market by 2024.
“I am very happy that the Komesha Fruit Fly Campaign is going to eliminate the fruit fly that has cost us millions of shillings in postharvest losses,” added Madam Waema. “The launch of this initiative is a day of rebirth of Makueni County! I'll now be able to produce more mangos and sell them at an increased price.”
What a testimony and relief!
What can be more than this concerted approach by the government and concerned investors to eliminate dangerous pests trying to bring down the economy of the whole country. It was as simple as this, but it lasted for eight years until victory became theirs. Can we replicate this in Nigeria? Time will tell.
We will bring to you what the government of Nigeria is doing to solve their own fruit flies problem.
Stay with us.
Our company is one of the best Agro-Export Business in Nigeria today. We train individuals and corporate organizations on how to do Export Business the right way; if you are interested, please contact the admin of this forum now for further details.
In the first part of this article we brought to you what happened to Kenya as regards mango export. The country has been taking the issue of mango export especially to the EU and UK very seriously because that is where the real money is.
We are going to look at what Kenya did to come out of the problem and start exporting their mango again.
In that article we told you that Nigeria is ranked the world’s 10th largest producer of mangoes; we produce about 800,000 metric tonnes of the fruit annually. This comes to about 3 percent of the world’s total mango production. We are the largest producer of mango in Africa. But in 2022 Nigeria ranks the 6th largest producer of mango in the world.
Most of the mango produced in Nigeria are consumed locally or wasted while other countries are making millions in foreign exchange from the fruit they produce very little.
According to data from HCD, Kenya is the fourth largest producer of mango in Africa, our dear Nigeria is the largest producer in Africa; still nothing is coming out of the business as regards export. There is no serious history of mango export in Nigeria. How can Kenya , the 4th largest producer of mango in Africa, be making so much money from the commodity while Nigeria, the largest producer in Africa, makes nothing?
What was the problem with Kenya’s mango production and export?
Just look at this cry “Fruit flies have destroyed our gold!” said Phyllis Waema, chairperson of the Makueni County Fruit Processors Cooperative Society. “We have been investing a lot in taking care of our mango orchards only for fruit flies to destroy more than 50% of the produce.”
The country had a problem with fruit flies in the mango farms and the country decided by the country’s agricultural authorities to place a ban on the export of mangoes to the EU and UK in 2013. They decided to deal with the fruit flies by themselves without allowing the EU countries to discover the menace by themselves and placed a ban on export of mangoes from Kenya.
This is exactly the same problem currently faced by Nigeria in all the states that produce mangoes in large quantities. But what did our government do to solve the problem?
What did Kenya do to solve the problem?
Since the ban, however, the Horticulture Crops Directorate in Kenya has created pest free areas or areas of low pest preference especially in the main mango producing zones of Makueni, Machakos, Meru and parts of Baringo. There has been a significant reduction of the level of these pests and this is what has necessitated the country to think of re-entering the market once more.
The country’s agricultural authorities said “For 8 years Kenya had self-imposed the export ban because of the presence of fruit flies on its mangoes. The efforts of the whole sector have just been rewarded; the EU has approved the resumption of exports.”
The Campaign: A Coordinated Public-Private Effort to Scale up Technology Adoption
For Kenyan mangoes to get back onto shelves in the EU and United Kingdom (UK) markets, pest-free areas (PFA) and areas of low pest prevalence (ALPP) needed to be created to enhance competitiveness in both domestic and export markets.
USAID’s Feed the Future Kenya Crops and Dairy Market Systems (KCDMS) Activity formed the Mango Technical Working Group (TWG) to coordinate efforts and mobilize resources of like-minded stakeholders to create a PFA and ALPP.
On January 22, 2020, KCDMS launched a Fruit Fly-Free Zone campaign dubbed “Komesha Fruit Fly.” The campaign aims to increase export market share for mangoes by 30% by 2023, create new jobs for 240 spray service providers and unlock access to up to KES 10 billion (US$98 million) through the export market by 2024.
“I am very happy that the Komesha Fruit Fly Campaign is going to eliminate the fruit fly that has cost us millions of shillings in postharvest losses,” added Madam Waema. “The launch of this initiative is a day of rebirth of Makueni County! I'll now be able to produce more mangos and sell them at an increased price.”
What a testimony and relief!
What can be more than this concerted approach by the government and concerned investors to eliminate dangerous pests trying to bring down the economy of the whole country. It was as simple as this, but it lasted for eight years until victory became theirs. Can we replicate this in Nigeria? Time will tell.
We will bring to you what the government of Nigeria is doing to solve their own fruit flies problem.
Stay with us.
Our company is one of the best Agro-Export Business in Nigeria today. We train individuals and corporate organizations on how to do Export Business the right way; if you are interested, please contact the admin of this forum now for further details.
