Agricultural exports and re-exports from Rwanda generated over $444.8 million (approx.Rwf447bn) in 2020-2021, representing a revenue increase of 6.17 percent compared to $419 million earned during the previous fiscal year.

This is according to latest data from the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB).

This growth, which was registered despite the outbreak of Covid-19, comes after two consecutive years of agricultural exports decline.

The report shows that revenues from traditional export commodities – tea, coffee and pyrethrum – decreased by 1.19 percent due to an 8.7 percent drop in tea average price, while non-traditional export commodities (exports that are relatively new) increased by 10.67 percent.

Grains and cereals, fish, essential oils, sugar, vegetable oil and Oleaginous (Soya, groundnuts, sunflowers) contributed to this good performance of non-traditional exports, the report indicated.

NAEB Communication Specialist, Pie Ntwari told The New Times on Monday, August 30, 2021, that key attributes to the growth were some products that fetched high revenues such as flowers, pyrethrum and essential oils.

He said that revenues of flower exports almost doubled from $4 million to $7.7 million, adding that these were mainly made up of roses that fetch high prices at the market.

Also, export of refined pyrethrum increased which impacted positively on the revenues that were generated by 12.7 percent.

Revenues from essential oils exports more than tripled from slightly over $368,000 in 2019-2020 to almost $1.4 million in 2020-2021 as result of new active exporters in this value chain.

"We also had the average of coffee prices increase on international market from $3.06 to $3.64,” he indicated.

Cereal exports

Cereals exported from Rwanda in 2020-2021 amounted to over 194.5 million kilogrammes which generated $92.4 million, compared to over 177.7 million kilogrammes that were exported and brought in $80 million in 2019-2020. The revenues generated in 2020-2021 represent an increase of 16 percent compared to those of the previous year.

Such exports include rice, wheat, and maize.

Coffee export slightly up

In 2020-2021, more than 16.8 million kilogrammes of coffee were exported, and generated over $61.5 million, an increase of 1.83 percent compared to $60.4 million that was earned from exporting more than 19.7 million kilogrammes of coffee in the previous fiscal year.

The small increase of coffee revenues is attributed to the good price of coffee registered in 2020-2021.

Cooking oil exports

Rwanda exported over 41.9 million kilogrammes of cooking oil in 2020-2021, which generated over $47.1 million. In 2019-2020, the country exported over 37.7 million kilogrammes of cooking oil bringing in over $35.8 million. Export volumes increased by 11 percent, while revenues rose by 31 percent.

Export of Fish

Fish exports in 2020-2021 amounted to over 29 million kilogrammes and generated over $31.8 million, which is more than 14.5 million kilogrammes that fetched over $18.8 million in the previous financial year.

These data mean that fish exports almost doubled in terms of quantity, while revenues increased by 69 percent in 2020-2021 compared to the earnings in the previous financial year.

Export of oleaginous products

In 2020-2021, more than 19.5 kilogrammes of oleaginous (oily) products – including soya, groundnuts, and sunflowers – were exported from Rwanda and generated over $23.7 million.

In 2019-2020, oleaginous product exports from Rwanda amounted to over 7.3 million kilogrammes that fetched over $7.9 million.

The oleaginous exports in 2020/2021 represent a good performance as quantities increased by 167 percent, while revenues rose by 198 percent compared to the previous year – or almost tripled.

Tea exports

Meanwhile, though tea exports revenues decreased by 3.9 percent, a drop attributed to low prices averaging $2.62 a kilogramme down from $2.87 a kilogramme, tea continued to be Rwanda’s top agricultural export revenue earner.

In 2020-2021, over 34.3 million kilogrammes of made (processed) tea was exported and fetched $90 million, compared to over 32.6 million kilogrammes that generated over $93.6 million in the previous year.

Horticulture exports

Overall, horticulture exports – vegetables, fruits and flowers – generated combined revenue of over $28.79 million; slightly higher than the $28.7 million that the agriculture sub-sector generated in the previous fiscal year.

Flowers played a paramount role in the horticulture export earnings in the year under review as indicated above.

For fruits, almost 5 million kilogrammes were exported and they raked in about $7.8 million. This is 4 percent higher than over $7.5 million that was generated from the exportation of more than 8.5 million kilogrammes in the previous year.

However, vegetables registered poor performance in 2020-2021 when Rwanda exported over 9.4 million kilogrammes of vegetables which generated $13 million. This represents a 24 percent drop compared to over $17 million that was generated from exporting 22.4 million kilogrammes of vegetables in the previous financial year.

Speaking to The New Times, Robert Rukundo, the chairperson of Horticulture Exporters Association of Rwanda generally attributed the increase in fruit export revenues to people’s high need for their consumption in order to boost their immunity against the Covid-19 pandemic, which he said helped raise their price.”

For the decline in vegetable exports, Rukundo said that the underlying reasons include that exporters were facing high airfreight charges, and the reduced consumer spending in export destination countries during the pandemic.

"There were border closures, while airfreight charges were high such that [in some cases] we could not cover the costs and [at the same time] be able to breakeven,” he said.

Way forward

Going forward, in line with Rwanda’s aim to generate $1 billion in annual agricultural exports by 2024, Ntwari said that NAEB’s major focus will be on supporting increase in productivity and quality of prioritised value chains for export.

It will also focus on supporting and attracting more investments in value addition depending on the needs at the market, putting more efforts in diversifying agricultural products, increasing market share on existing regional and international markets, new market penetration, enhancing sector coordination and an enabling environment for sustainable growth of agri-exports.