Our sourcing project for organic avocados builds on the extensive experience of Tradin Organic in sourcing organic certified ingredients from Ethiopia. For decades, Tradin Organic has been sourcing organic products like sesame and coffee from Ethiopia. This know-how, together with our local presence, helped us to build a solid sourcing operation and a thorough organic systems plan for our organic avocado project.
Our organic avocados are grown by more than 32,000 smallholder farmers in Southern Ethiopia. Most farmers grow their avocado trees in an agroforestry system, mixed with crops. Due to the region’s unique climate and rich soil, the avocado trees produce fruits almost year-round. Naturally rich in oil, the local variety of avocado is an exceptional input for producing a flavorful avocado oil.
As avocados are a delicate fruit, they should be picked and handled with care to avoid bruising. Moreover, the avocados grow on tall trees, making harvest a challenge. For these reasons, our sourcing project employs professional picking teams, who help the farmers to harvest the avocados. In addition to the necessary safety gear, the picking teams receive specialized training in tree climbing safety and product handling.
After harvest, the organic avocados are carefully packed in crates and brought to a local collection point. At the collection point, the crates of avocados are prepared for transport to our processing facility.
As part of our organic control system, we have a local team of 30 extensions workers and support staff, who help guarantee the traceability of our organic avocado. This team is using the latest technology to register and monitor our certified organic avocado farmers. Making use of mobile technology, our team can GPS map the avocado farms, as well as register farmer data and transaction records. This allows us to trace our organic avocados all the way back to the farm level.