Mandago ‘Shocked’ Over Sh500 Single Avocado Price in Finland

Uasin Gishu governor Jackson Mandago recently traveled to Finland on a mission to scout for education and job opportunities for the youths from his county.

It is a mission that took him to many places, enabling the county boss to interact with different kinds of people from a cross-section of sectors.

On his return, it seems there is one thing that left him surprised – the cost of a single avocado in Finland supermarkets.

While the fruit goes for as low as Ksh10 or even less in many fresh produce markets across the country – in Finland, it is a different case.

According to the governor, a single avocado, which is of the lowest quality retails at 4 Euros in Finland, which is about Ksh500.

“I recently traveled to Finland and found out that one avocado goes for about €4 (Euros) (Ksh500/-) at the groceries. I was in Finland for education and job opportunities for our youths, but they were asking if there are avocados in Kenya that they can import,” Mandago noted in a recent public event in Soy Sub County.

With such a price for a produce that many farmers don’t take seriously, the county boss now wants the perception to change so that locals can take advantage of its use market abroad.

“That basically means that we have a huge market for avocados abroad,” he pointed out.

The County Government of Uasin Gishu has been urging its locals to focus on diversifying their farming activities so as to put more emphasis on high-value crops such as coffee, macadamia, and tissue bananas, and cut overdependence on the traditional cereal farming that has proved not profitable.

“We need to plant more high-value crops in our diversification program in this region. We should do farming that will bring more money into your pockets,” Mandago advised the farmers.