Govt moves to register avocado buyers, agents

DODOMA: THE government has unveiled plans to register all avocado buyers and their respective agents as part of enhanced measures to protect farmers from exploitation and to ensure strict compliance with avocado trade regulations.

The Director General of the Cereals and Other Produce Regulatory Authority (COPRA), Ms Irene Mlola said on Monday that the initiative will see all avocado buyers registered into a central system, alongside their agents, who must be officially recognised in designated areas where they operate.

The move, she said, seeks to eliminate dishonest trading practices that deny farmers fair earnings from their produce. Ms Mlola was addressing members of agricultural cooperative societies across the country in Dodoma.

“The government wants to ensure that buyers are registered and their agents clearly identified and recognised. This will help protect our farmers from being exploited,” said Ms Mlola.

She added: “Any buyer or agent found violating the government’s avocado trade guidelines including cases involving cheating or underpaying farmers would have their licences revoked.”

Ms Mlola reaffirmed the government’s commitment to enforcing strict monitoring of avocado trade to ensure transparency and fairness.

She said that the purchase of avocados will only be allowed at designated collection centres and not at the farm level, in order to maintain order in the marketing system.

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According to Ms Mlola, buyers and agents will be registered and trading will follow officially scheduled harvesting and selling periods.

She said farmers are expected to cooperate with the government and allow COPRA officers to oversee trade guidelines, especially on avocado grading to safeguard farmers’ rights.

“It is the government’s position to eliminate the disorder currently observed in the avocado trade system, where farmers have no say in the pricing or handling of the produce they have worked hard for,” she explained.

She noted that some buyers have been purchasing avocados from farmers at prices determined solely by themselves, a practice that is both unfair and unacceptable.

To address this, the government is putting in place procedures that will protect farmers, while also urging them to support the process for smooth implementation.

The move is part of broader government efforts to structure agricultural marketing and ensure that farmers benefit fairly from their labour, especially in high-demand crops such as avocado.