Not long ago, Ashenafi Ayalew, 41, would have laughed if told he could generate over half a million Birr from growing avocado on a hectare of land. A father of five, Ashenafi has spent the better part of his life engaged in growing wheat and teff on over 30ht of land in Lemu Wereda of East Shewa Zone, in Oromia Regional State.

Ashenafi spent his days toiling over the land, and the best yield he could hope for was 30 quintals of wheat from a hectare. Recently, he has been selling a quintal for close to 3,000 Br in the markets near his farmland. The work was challenging, but he stuck with it; he did not have many options.

That all changed three years ago. Ashenafi and two other farmers in the area received training on cultivating avocado. The Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), now Institute, was behind the training Ashenafi and his neighbours took. They decided it could not harm to give it a chance and Ashenafi planted avocado trees on a hectare of their land. His bet has paid off. Last month, he was the first to export avocado from a yield of 100qnt, pulling in 600,000 Br from the crops.

"It's a life-changing opportunity," said Ashenafi.

His achievements did not go unnoticed. He was honoured at an agricultural conference held earlier this month with Shmelis Abdisa, president of Oromia Regional State, and Oumer Hussein, minister of Agriculture, present. It may take three years for an avocado tree to mature. Once it does, it can yield up to 50Kg of fruit every six months if used in tandem with irrigation.

A kilo of avocado goes for around 40 Br in markets in Addis Abeba. Exported, it may earn 10 times, particularly in North America and Europe where there is a considerable demand for the fruit.

Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Colombia are the largest avocado exporters in the world. Proximity makes these countries prefer to ship their product to the US, where consumers could spend two dollars on a single avocado fruit. This imbalance has left European and Middle Eastern markets without a dependable supply.

Ethiopia is trying to capitalise on this shortfall.

The number of farmers engaged in growing avocado for the commercial end has been increasing rapidly. It almost doubled last year from 1.8 million farmers three years ago, according to the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS). The total farmland used for cultivating the fruit also jumped by 70pc to 30.6ht during the same period. With this came significant growth in production, shooting by a little over 200pc in the past three years, reaching 2.45 million quintals.

Farmers like Ashenafi exported close to 3,000tn of avocado last year, either fresh or dried. This put Ethiopia on the map of avocado exporting countries, generating around 800,000 dollars. Seemingly a fraction of the total export earnings of over three billion dollars last year, this is a value 800pc more than four years ago.

Ethiopia exports the Hass variety of avocado, the most prevalent accounting for 80pc of cultivated avocados globally. Ever since the variety was introduced from Israel four years ago, the Agricultural Transformation Institute has been seedling the variety at its nursery stations, distributing it to farmers like Ashenafi at the end of the training, and creating market links. The Institute provides support to 53,000 smallholder farmers in four regional states, including Oromia and Amhara regional states. These farmers produced 1.1 million quintals of avocado last year.

There are only 15 commercial avocado farms in the country. However, a growing number of farmers are shifting from cultivating other crops to avocado, says Techane Adugna, director of agriculture commercialisation at the ATI.