Business is gradually picking up for Rwandans in the Horticulture sector – the country recorded a total of 305.6 metric tons of fresh produce.
The produce mostly exported includes horticulture fresh produce such as fruits, vegetables and flowers from which was earned US$644,656.7.
According to RwandaFresh Brand, “the consignment was comprised of Chilies, French beans, Avocado, Bananas, Passion fruits, summer flowers and roses among others.”
Rwanda’s fresh products are branded under the “RWANDAFRESH Brand” and processed products are certified for the recognized world quality industrial standards.
Rwanda’s horticulture sector has been steadily growing as evidenced by previous statistics.
Also read: Rwandan farmers rush back to fields as 2021A season begins
The National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) statistical report (2018-2019) on performance of agri-exports sector, a total volume of 37,343 metric tons (MT) of horticultural produce were exported from Rwanda during the 2018-2019 fiscal year as compared to 30,097 MT horticultural produce exported during the 2017-2018 fiscal year.
Growth in horticultural export volumes from Rwanda was at 24%, which transformed to 16% increase in export revenues at USD 27,174,785 in 2018-2019 compared to USD 23,439,874 earned from horticultural exports during 2017-2018 financial year.
Horticultural export revenues (US$27,174,785) earned from vegetables, fruits and flowers during the 2018-2019 fiscal year represented a significant 5% of the total of US$465,405,334 earnings from agricultural exports. Vegetables contributed a significant (57.5%) of horticulture export products, followed by fruits (30.9 %) and then flowers (11.6 %).
It was noted that from July 2018 to June 2019, vegetables export volumes of 26,751 Mt were sold at US$15,638,674 compared to 20,635 Mt sold at US$12,389,352 in the previous fiscal year. Therefore, this implies that there was a 26% positive increase in revenues earned from vegetable exports.
The main vegetable products exported from Rwanda were cabbage, fresh tomato and tomato paste, onions, French beans, green pepper and chili pepper. The Democratic Republic of Congo was a leading destination where 72% of vegetables were exported, followed by Uganda (20%), Great Britain (3%) and France (3%) respectively. Other export destinations of Rwandan vegetables included Burundi and China among others.
Original article on Taarifa Rwanda
