In a secluded area of Burundi, farmers are accustomed to gathering around a truck by the highway to sell their avocados. Emerging from their villages, they watch as the fruit is weighed and loaded. These roadside transactions, a staple during the harvest season, have historically been the mainstay for small-scale avocado producers in a nation often listed among the poorest globally. However, these dealings now yield substantial profits, partly due to the national government and farmers’ cooperatives negotiating with international avocado traders.
A year prior, farmers received a mere 10 cents per kilogram (2.2 pounds) for their avocados, less than the cost of a small water bottle. Now, they earn approximately 70 cents for the same amount, a significant rise for those whose primary livelihood is subsistence farming. A pivotal shift in this commerce is the direct deposit of payments in U.S. dollars into the cooperatives’ bank accounts, which promptly distribute the funds to their members after the avocados are transported. Cooperatives like Green Gold Burundi, headquartered in Kayanza province and representing 200,000 farmers across the country, act as middlemen and claim a stronger stance against exploitation compared to individual farmers.
Annual income per capita was $199 in 2023, among the lowest globally, and nearly 65% of the people live below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures. Agriculture is the main economic activity, and many people in rural provinces such as Kayanza only grow the potatoes and vegetables they will consume through the year. For many, including those with only a couple of plants in their compounds, avocado farming has proven a surprisingly reliable source of income. Eric Nsabimana, a farmer in Kayanza, recalled starting as an avocado grower in response to the campaign of former leader Nkurunziza. Some farmers felt forced into producing avocados and eventually uprooted the seedlings the government gave them but now rue the missed opportunity, Nsabimana said.
“The people who didn’t plant, they regret,” he said, adding that avocado “can change your livelihood.” Nsabimana, who has made more than $6,000 selling avocados in some years, said he used his earnings to acquire five more hectares (12.4 acres) of land now planted with 500 avocado plants. Habimana, the senior official with Green Gold Burundi, said his group moved to mobilize avocado farmers for better rewards after it realized at the beginning of the year they were being taken advantage of by foreign produce traders. One day in January, he followed a truck transporting Burundian avocados to neighboring Tanzania. He and others assumed the cargo was destined for consumption there. When he saw the avocados getting washed, weighed and packed in the town of Njombe, he realized the goods were bound for another export market abroad.
“There was another destination somewhere else not in Njombe,” Nsabimana said. When he returned to Kayanza, Green Gold Burundi prioritized plans to register avocado farmers in a way that eliminated middlemen and guaranteed a reasonable price for farmers. The cooperative pays the applicable taxes and keeps a cut of avocado proceeds to maintain an office and to provide members with benefits such as free seedlings and organic manure. Munezero, the cooperative’s quality management official, said while the price “is still a problem,” his group is “focusing on capacity building » and encouraging residents to plant more avocado plants. Green Gold Burundi has distributed millions of seedlings in the past year, finding enthusiasm among farmers eager to join the avocado bandwagon. Even growers with only a few backyard Hass plants said they increasingly see avocado as a cash crop. “Avocados mean dollars to us,” one such grower, Samuel Niyinyibutsa, said, adding that he knows some Kayanza residents who feel “left behind” when they see others collect payments for their produce. “But they still have time,” Niyinyibutsa said. “they can be awakened and start planting avocados because avocado can do well to them as it is doing well to us.”
