The Government has embarked on a training programme to equip Small and Medium Enterprises in the meat value chain.

The training will help livestock farmers, butchers, meat processors and suppliers meet hotel, supermarket and aviation industry standards by acquiring Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification.

Being HACCP-certified means that a product is safe, indicating that the consumer will not get sick or any health complications due to the product. It is one of the critical aspects of food safety and is essential for international trade and standards credibility.

The move, according to officials, is intended to ensure that local hotels, supermarkets and aviation industry buy from local meat producers instead of spending on imports of a commodity that is produced in the country.

The programme started Monday at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) headquarters in Kigali with a five-day training in which about 60 people in the meat value chain from across the country are participating.

In addition, officials said they want local meat producers to not only recapture the domestic market, but also become competitive on the international market.

An analysis carried out by RDB in hotels, last year, revealed that SMEs within the hotel supply chain were not able to measure up to the minimum standards of hotels, which resorted to importing meat, according to Joy Rwamwenge, RDB’s SME and business development manager.

RDB says most of the meat in Rwanda’s hotels, supermarkets and aviation industry come from South Africa where meat value chain entities have HACCP certification.

Rwamwenge said SMEs should seize opportunities brought about by the country’s fast growing economy, including hotels and the Rwanda aviation industry, citing recently opened Marriott and Radisson Blue hotels and RwandAir’s aircraft fleet growth and routes expansion.

"There was a general concern that we are actually importing things that we produce here. We import meat, chicken and eggs. Are we not able to produce these things?” she asked.

"Why should hotels or RwandAir import meat, chicken and eggs when we have these commodities here?” she wondered.

Patrick Buhigiro, a staffer at ASL Rwanda EPZ, a company that supplies foods to flight passengers under the Rwanda aviation industry, said they import the meat from South Africa because meat processors in Rwanda have not yet complied with the standards required by airlines.

"We are spending more money on imports of meat compared to locally produced meat, but we do it as a last resort because there is no option since the standards in aviation industry requires that,” he said.

In December, last year, farmers, through the chamber of farmers at the Private Sector Federation, signed an agreement with hotels to supply them with food items as one of the ways to reduce import of the same products.

Antoinette Mbabazi, the national certification division manager at Rwanda Standards Board (RSB), said there were about 14 processing industries that have the HACCP certificate in cereals, milk, tea, mushrooms and juice value chains.

She noted that getting the certificate in Rwanda is not expensive because it costs Rwf450,000, including all the evaluation processes and that the certificate is valid for three years.

But, she added, what was expensive for an SME or a company was to position itself to become eligible to acquire the certificate because a meat processing entity should ensure safety in the entire value chain.

"A company should know where the meat it processes comes from and that there is safety assurance from farm, and transportation, to processing, kitchen and to the dish (consumption),” Mbabazi said, adding that if livestock has a disease or toxins, the meat will already be contaminated even at the abattoir level.

Subsidising the HACCP certificate

RDB subsidises the cost of HACCP certificate at 50 per cent.

Currently, no Rwandan entity in the meat industry has an HACCP certificate, according to RSB.

Athanasie Mukeshiyaremye, the national standards division manager at RSB, said that illness and deaths caused by consuming unsafe food present a real threat to public health, food security and social economic development worldwide, calling for concerted efforts to ensure food safety.

Mukeshiyaremye said that, in 2010, it was estimated that foodborne diseases accounted for about two billion cases and over one million deaths globally while economic cost encountered due to food contamination was estimated at $15.5 billion in the US.

Daniel Mbaga, managing director of Agrihealth, a company that owns abattoirs in Gicumbi and Gakenke districts, said they have not yet acquired the HACCP certificate because they have not yet met some requirements.

"We are now being empowered so that we can compete on the international market,” he said, noting that they had been stopped from supplying meat to supermarkets and hotels because of not having the certificate.

Figures from Rwanda Agriculture Board show that meat production in Rwanda, including chicken, beef, pork and goat meat, increased to 116,000 tonnes from about 86,000 tonnes in 2015.

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