In Haiti, the first steps have been taken towards the exporting of avocados. A start has also been made in the transformation of the transport system for avocados and mangoes, as well as getting better prices for small-scale farmers. Experts from the Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation and Wageningen Food & Biobased Research are making this possible. They are giving technical advice and are bringing chain partners together. They are also helping to bring more transparency to the chain.
In 2017 and 2018, Wageningen University & Research researched the mango and avocado chains. This was done in order to improve the position of small-scale farmers and to strengthen relations between parties in the chain. This includes the consumer. This study was done at the request of the Haitian Ministry of Trade and Industry and the World Bank.
Haiti has been exporting mangoes to the United States for decades. These mangoes cost $2 in American supermarkets. Farmers only get about two to five US cents of this. The middlemen, on the other hand, get about $0,80 of this $2. Added to this are transportation costs and profit margins for the middlemen and the supermarkets.
Avocados are not yet officially being exported from Haiti. Smuggling to the Dominican Republic does, however, occur. Here, they are sold to the USA as 'Dominican' avocados. Mango and avocado cultivation and sales offer important employment opportunities to those in the poorest parts of Haiti. These products amount to almost 40% of the producers in this part of the country's income.
The Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation has advised those in this sector to record information in every step of the chain. This information should include time, temperatures, and costs. This data can be used for blockchain or other chain data applications. Parties in the chain were also brought together to learn together. An analysis of the mango chain showed that, with a few relatively simple techniques, major strides could be made in the logistical operation of this fruit's chain. For example, by encouraging farmers to pick mangoes at the correct time, many more mangoes can reach the market. These fruits must be harvested so that they ripen only after they have been transported.
A second important step is to digitise and make the chain more transparent. As a test, several boxes of mangos and avocados, destined for the export market, were given a QR code. This was done right after the fruits were harvested. Whoever scanned this code with a mobile phone was directed to a webpage. Here, there was information about the specific grower, harvesting location, and transportation temperature. The revenue distribution among the players in the chain is also displayed here. Farmers can also follow the boxes from when they leave the farm. The basic principle has now been demonstrated. Now, a large fruit trader is going to use this for large-scale shipments for a year in 2019. A hundred mango farmers and 100 avocado farmers will be involved. In a follow-up project, farmers will receive training so as to meet these technical demands.
Source: WUR