Lawmakers have called on the National Agricultural Export Board (Naeb) to do more to widen export base of the country.

Naeb officials were yesterday appearing before the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) where they were tasked to explain the circumstances under which Rwandan traders lost an opportunity to export meat to the Republic of Congo.

When Rwanda and Congo decided to strengthen their relations, local business community seized the opportunity to tap the central African nation’s market but needed support from the government.

As a result, commerce chambers in the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to share information and expertise to facilitate traders in both countries access potential investment areas as well information for better decision making.

In 2011, Rwanda held its first trade fair in Brazzaville to showcase its potential. Rwandan businessmen who attended the exhibition also picked interest in exporting meat to the West African country that sometime imports meat from Europe.

The fact that by the time the meat arrived in Brazzaville, it had all gone bad, which required Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to send $17,000 to Brazzaville to properly dispose of the spoilt meat irked lawmakers, concerns for which Naeb officials tried to offer reassurance.

Magnifique Ndambe, the deputy director-general of export operation and market development at Naeb, told PAC that since then, it was decided to facilitate a few members of the private sector and strategise on how they can export meat to Brazzaville.

"Naeb was to organise the traders who would invest into exporting meat Brazzaville, RwandaAir was tasked with looking into issues of transportation, we realised that government needed to give a subsidy and that was the task of RDB,” Ndambe, who is also Naeb’s acting chief operations officer, said.

To tap government subsidies, meat dealers formed a cooperative called Rageo, but since RwandAir could not handle the cargo, a deal with Ethiopian Airlines was arrived at for the airline to do the transportation with a 30-tonne cargo plane.

"One of the conditions set by Ethiopian Airlines was that we had to make the first payment of $50,000 before they could take off and we had to book 72 hours in advance,” Ndambe said.Exporters were to pay in advance and RDB would top it up with the subsidy.

The subsidy given to the traders was $0.25 cents per kilogramme on transportation but the contract collapsed immediately after the first consignment got spoilt.

The deal was to fly 24 shipments of meat to Brazzaville. In line with the terms of the memorandum of understanding, RDB transferred Rwf115 million to RwandAir’s bank account.

RwandAir would then release $7,500 from the subsidy for each shipment made by exporters selected by Private Sector Federation (PSF) and upon confirmation that exporters had transferred the other portion of the transport costs amounting to $44,000 to its bank account.

The plan was that RwandAir would ensure the security and safety of exporters’ products from the moment they are logged into the airport cold room to the final destination in Brazzaville.

Ndambe said: "We were doubtful of the quantity we would have by flight time so we asked traders for an estimate of their quantity. They also convinced us that they had a market in Brazzaville, but this was an oversight we should have verified.”

Flight day

Meat was supposed to arrive at the Kigali International Airport at 6am straight from abattoir and kept in the cold room up to 2pm when the plane would take off.

"Since there was a slot coming from Bugesera abattoir, we switched on the cold room at 4am so that the meat arrives when the cold room is at minimum temperatures,” said Ndambe.

By the time the meat arrived in Brazzaville, it had all gone bad, which resulted in RDB immediately send $17,000 to Brazzaville to properly dispose of the meat.

Part of the errors that PAC observed included the fact that meat was not examined before being stored in the airport coldroom, Naeb did not know when the animals were slaughtered and how the meat had been stored before it was brought to the airport.

The New Times has since learnt that the meat arrived at the airport hours later than the agreed time which lawmakers say could be one of the reasons that could have led to the meat going bad.

MP Theogène Munyangeyo said much of what led to the loss was due to poor planning.

"We should rather spend much time in planning than rushing to implement things that are going to incur losses. You now owe traders, how are you going to handle that?” he asked.

Although the exportation deal went sour before Amb. George William Kayonga became the chief executive of Naeb, he admitted the mistakes, saying it was a learning experience and that ever since he came into office he has avoided the same mistakes.

"There are two cases; the first one was an eye opener for us but the second consignment, which happened when I had joined Naeb, was successful; we sold off all that we had exported but still there was something new to learn with regards to market access,” he said.

"To avoid a similar scenario, Rwanda Agriculture Livestock Inspection Services (Ralis) has since established a protocol for beef production by issuance of instructions on quality control and standards of abattoir. The instructions are approved by Rwanda Bureau of Standards.”

Amb. Kayonga told lawmakers that the entire shipment process is now monitored by Ralis.

"When such a loss happens, it is not about the trader only it’s the image of the nation that is at stake. That’s why we promise you that we will maintain this standards chain,” he said.

Kayonga said Braziville could not give Rwandan traders preferential treatment previously because government had pulled out of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCASS).

"We are now looking at re-joining ECCASS since we had pulled out because we were in many blocs and paying much on membership yet there wasn’t much that we were exporting there.We have business hopes in the Republic of Congo not only on beef but also in diary sector mainly with exportation of finished products, fruits and dried fish and grains products,” Kayonga told PAC.

edwin.musoni@newtimes.co.rw