The Minister for Trade, Industry and EAC Affairs, François Kanimba, has commended ‘Get It Rwanda’, a local company that washes and processes fruits and vegetables mainly for export purpose.

He made the remarks Tuesday during his visit to the plant located in Kicukiro District.

The company recently acquired ISO 22000, the highest level of food safety certification, and is the first local firm dealing in distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables to achieve this certification.

"The good thing about this investor is that she works with farmers and major hotels and restaurants all over the country that are in need of quality food stuff,” said Kanimba.

He called upon farmers to exploit this new market and urged more entrepreneurs to venture into value addition of agriculture produce saying that this will create more wealth.

According to the minister, the company will help reduce the trade deficit. He said they are already exporting some produce.

"They are in advanced stages of negotiations to start exporting their produce to Dubai and some countries in central Africa such as Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon,” the minister said.

Lauren Russell Nkuranga, the founder and CEO, Get It Rwanda, said they distribute food stuff across the country and very soon they expect to start exporting as well.

"It is good to have the minister here and be able to show him the supply chain that we have built because we work with farmers all over Rwanda to be able to source their products on contract farming,” she added.

The already processed fruits and vegetables are stored in a cold storage that has five different ways of getting energy.

"We work directly with farmers on contract farming basis. We make sure that when they plant the seeds, they actually know that they have a market for their produce. They work directly with our agronomist.”

Though Russell did not disclose how much she has invested, she said they are looking for more farmers to grow their network to increase the volume of the produce they harvest.

The investor currently employs 52 people.

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