ThE COUNTRY’s reliance on imported mushrooms is expected to reduce following the launch of a new production facility in Musanze District.

The facility, inaugurated last Friday, is owned by Kigali Farms.

The first button mushroom production plant in Rwanda will produce 250 metric tonnes of button mushrooms per year, according to officials.Located in Gacaca Sector in Musanze District, it was constructed at a tune of $1 million (about Rwf810 million).

Kigali Farms targets high-value markets in East Africa, where button mushrooms are currently imported mainly from Europe, according to Laurent Demuynck, Kigali Farms proprietor.

Demuynck said he brought the investment to Rwanda due to the country’s ease of doing business and market potential.

Musanze District has one of the highest population densities in the country with a climate suitable for mushroom production, he said.

The facility will also produce special compost called ‘substrate’ for local farmers to grow oyster mushrooms for consumption and marketing.

Small-scale mushroom production using Kigali Farms quality substrate offers smallholder farmers an affordable source of protein and alternative source of income.

Demuynck said other than button mushroom that is produced for business in the country and outside, the company will also help farmers grow another type of mushroom (oyster mushroom) for consumption as well as local commercialisation.

"While the button mushrooms are really more of a business, the oyster mushrooms, which are the reason that the company exists in the first place, are easy to grow by farmers,” he said.

"We want the locals to learn to grow them, learn how to eat them and include them in their diet, then we’d like to start buying a little bit of their produce,” he said."The main idea is that the nutrition in the oyster mushroom does not just end up at the Marriott (and other hotels), but that it remains here.”

Kigali Farms partnered with the Private Sector Driven Agricultural Growth (PSDAG) to set up the plant.

Local benefit

Kigali Farms started working with local farmers supported by 30 trained people to grow mushrooms on small scale

According to Samuel Niyomugabo, the substitute production manager at the facility, the company works with over 1,500 farmers – who produce oyster mushrooms – grouped in 77 Farmer Field Schools in Musanze and Burera districts.

Local farmers also sell wheat straw to the company as essential raw material for substrate production.

Kigali Farms, officials said, has invested in five collection centres to source wheat straw from Musanze farmers, a material that was previously burned as waste. In the first season, Kigali Farms purchased five metric tonnes from 356 farmers.

Cyprien Kazungu, director of Business Development Fund in Musanze, lauded the work and investments made so far by the company, saying it will boost mushroom commercialisation in the area.

He urged farmers to take advantage of the plant.

"I hope that this plant we have launched today will impact your lives and you will be able to earn more incomes through jobs created and improve nutrition by adopting the culture of eating and integrating mushrooms in your daily diet,’’ Kazungu told the farmers.

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