An investor is needed to address a situation where some farmers are demotivated to carry on sericulture and to utilise the Kigali Silk Factory that has been lying idle for about four years, Ombudsman Madeleine Nirere has said.
Nirere told Parliament on Tuesday, October 22, that some farmers uprooted their mulberry trees as a lack of motivation due to absence of an investor to offer adequate support the silk sector needs.
She exposed the issue as she presented the report of the Office of Ombudsman for the financial year 2023/2024 and action plan for 2024/2025.
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The report highlighted issues in sericulture – the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms for silk production.
It showed that a Korean firm, called HeWorks Rwanda Silk Ltd, had an agreement with the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) that was meant to utilise a silk factory located at Kigali Special Economic Zone, a move that negatively affected the contract the firm had with sericulture farmers in different districts of the country.
Almost $1.3 million had been invested in both the Kigali-based silk factory buildings and machinery by October 2021, according to information from NAEB.
Under the deal, the company would purchase all the cocoons produced in Rwanda, through contract farming with cooperatives and farmers, which according to farmers, would reassure them of a ready market for their produce.
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The Ombudsman’s report showed that the cancellation of the agreement caused led to major losses for farmers in the districts of Rwamagana, Huye, and Rubavu as they had to uproot the mulberry trees.
"The buildings they had set up for rearing silkworms also became ‘worthless’ for them as a result,” the report reads in part, adding that farmers were demotivated because the project was not successful.
Again, it showed, the situation had an impact on NAEB because the silk factory has been lying idle for about four years, yet the board has workers to protect and take care of it on a daily basis to ensure its maintenance.
"NAEB and RDB were requested to utilise the factory by jointly looking for another investor and helping [farmers] to avoid losses in sericulture,” Nirere said.
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MP Minani Bizimana wanted to know why the agreement between NAEB and the Korean company was cancelled and the issue of lack of a new investor to support silk farmers and utilise the idle factory.
"You realise that silk farmers incurred losses, and some uprooted mulberry trees as the Ombudsman indicated, and you wonder what happened such that NAEB had no other option to look for another investor,” he said.
Nirere told parliamentarians that according to NAEB the Korean firm’s exit was attributed to a negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the project.
NAEB, she pointed out, said it was looking for another investor to take over the silk factory and encourage farmers not to continue uprooting the mulberry trees.
"[NAEB] gave us a reassurance that another investor could be found because there is really a loss because the factory machines should have maintenance so that they don’t break down, there are people in charge of their security and get paid,” she said, adding that NAEB and the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) should look for another investor to help address the issue.
In a recent article published by The New Times, on October 7, Jean Bosco Mulindi, Emerging Commodities Division Manager at NAEB, said that the factory was partially operational.
"A part of the Kigali Silk Factory that consists of cocoon-drying is operational. However, the remaining part, which consists of reeling cocoons to process them into raw silk, is not in operation."
He added that the government buys all the cocoons from the farmers to encourage them to keep up the practice, and that there were efforts to attract new investors to full operate the factory.