At the onset of 2021, TAHA conducted a short mapping survey of avocado farmers who are located in Arusha region with the purpose of promoting avocado production. The survey findings showed that the availability of avocado especially Hass-variety is at the lowest end and even through mobilization the existing farmers cannot fill a 20ft container. It was out of the survey that TAHA decided to mobilize farmers and establish an avocado cluster in the northern highlands of Arumeru district on the 12th of May 2021. During the launching of the cluster, TAHA contributed 500 avocado seedlings, which were distributed to the smallholder farmers residing in Ngyani village. The Acting Arusha Regional Administrative Secretary Mr. Hargeney Chitukuro and TAHA’s CEO Dr. Jacqueline Mkindi who was accompanied by senior government officials from the Arusha Regional Office graced the inauguration. Dr. Mkindi said that the major secret behind the establishment of the Northern avocado cluster is the fact that Arusha is located at a strategic gateway where horticultural products can be seamlessly exported on time through Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA), Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA), Dar Port in Dar es Salaam, and also through Namanga Border to Mombasa Port and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). “These gateways are putting Arusha at the competitive edge as a suitable destination for corporate exporters and off-takers of horticultural products including avocado hence a wider and reliable market for smallholder farmers”, Dr. Mkindi noted. On their side the smallholder farmers promised to take care of the seedlings donated by TAHA, vowing to add more seedlings so that they can make the Northern Avocado cluster one of the leading producers of Hass avocado in the few years to come. The southern highlands are currently the leading producers of the variety and the smallholders from that region have benefited a lot seeing some of them becoming millionaires
