Kigali Silk Factory, also the country’s sole silk factory, has drawn "keen interest” from international investors mainly from the Asian market, The New Times has learned.

This follows a four-year halt of operations at the factory since the exit of HEworks Rwanda Silk Ltd, a subsidiary of Korea-based HEworks that had signed an agreement with the government to oversee operations at the former.

According to official data, the halt led to a significant decline in the production of silk cocoons on the local market and exorbitant woes for the country’s sericulture farmers.

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However, the quest to identify a potential investor, albeit too long, has drawn several investors’ keen interest, according to the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB).

"Indeed, we narrowed down our list of investors to 2. The silk industry is only developed in Asian countries, and these 2 have made some requests that we are still discussing,” NAEB said in a response to The New Times.

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It is still unclear when the negotiations are scheduled to materialise, but sources say the factory is increasingly drawing interest from investors, particularly from the Asian market.

"We have received several proposals from Asian investors and this is something we are going to prioritise in finding a solution for,” NAEB added.

According to NAEB, one of the potential investors has also laid plans to boost the sericulture sector through a large-scale approach.

"Silk can produce different varieties from the properties of the cocoons, including wines, hair products, food supplements, and proteins.”

What is on the table?

The government of Rwanda has also pledged its support to the prospective investors, including the provision of all the five cocoon centres in the country, NAEB said.

These centres also house machines used to unwind the silk from the cocoons produced by farmers, ensuring the silk is not damaged

"Based on the agreement, the government will also take over mobilisation of farmers and also provide technicians to support the investor in other extension services including post-harvest handling and market linkages.”

Sericulture is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk used in the textile industry. It involves the farming of mulberry trees on which silkworms feed to produce silk cocoons with filaments that are processed to make fabrics or clothes.

Way forward

While appearing before parliament on Tuesday, October 22, Ombudsman Madeleine Nirere said that an investor is "needed urgently” to address the prevailing challenges after it emerged that some farmers are demotivated to carry on sericulture and to utilise the Kigali Silk Factory.

She pointed out cases of some farmers who have since uprooted their mulberry trees as a lack of motivation due to the absence of an investor to offer adequate support the silk sector needs.

The Ombudsman’s report, tabled before parliament on the same day, showed that the cancellation of the agreement led to major losses for farmers in the districts of Rwamagana, Huye, and Rubavu as they had to uproot the mulberry trees.

Nirere then maintained that NAEB and the Rwanda Development Board have been tasked to identify an investor in the next three months.

However, according to NAEB, the current negotiations are yet to materialise given that the potential investors are still reviewing preliminary data. This includes the current state of the sector, the opportunities, and the estimated returns.

"NAEB is handling this with a sense of urgency and we will need to accelerate the process.”

The sector in numbers

Sericulture is relatively a young industry in Rwanda and requires continuous support to sustain and make the sector economically meaningful, as per NAEB.

As of 2022, the area under production was 2,872 ha with 19 million productive mulberry trees, distributed among 3,693 individual farmers and 18 active cooperatives, it indicated.

The sector is dominated by smallholder farmers with small rearing houses (6m×5m). It also has six sericulture centers (Karongi, Nyanza, Gatsibo, Rushashi, Mulindi, and Rusizi) to support farmers with effective extension services and in rearing activities.

The highest annual fresh cocoon production was 39.4 tonnes (in 2019-2020), up from 3.3 tonnes in 2011/2012, data from NAEB show.

Currently, Cocoons Production Centres (CPCs) have 29.8 ha of land that shall be used by the investor for cocoon production.