The National Agriculture Exports Development Board (NAEB) and Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) has said that when they introduced improved apple and mango varieties 2010 and 2011, respectively, it was in order to decrease imports in the country and reduce the deficit in the trade of fruit.
“These varieties were introduced in 2010. Both have shown positive results, but apples have shown to require more efforts in investment and tree management as farmers need to defoliate the trees to induce flowering and require special canopy management that both institutions are still training farmers, thus the delay in getting to more farmers faster,” NAEB’s horticulture division manager, Epimaque Nsanzabaganwa told Sunday Times.
“There are many products such as juice and wine that can be made from apple; but because it is still imported and expensive, our products cannot be competitive on the market,” Félicien Ndagijimana, agronomist for “Entreprise Urwibutso" said calling for efforts from both the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal resources and other stakeholders to promote the production of various fruits needed in agro-processing and other uses in the country, citing apple, grape, passion fruit and strawberry.
According to the Statistical Year Book by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), Rwanda exported 3,609,144 kilogrammes of fruits including avocadoes, Fruit Juices, ripe bananas, oranges, Pineapples, passion fruit, mangoes, strawberry, macadamia nut and other fruits and nuts for $1,258,146 in 2015-2016. This is less than the 1,748,317 it exported in 2014-2015 for $1,069,150.
source: newtimes.co.rw
