A total of 18 flower dealers, Friday, concluded a 12-day training on flower export standards, organized by the Rwanda Horticulture Development Authority (RHODA), in Muhanga District.

According to Eric Kabayiza, the RHODA officer in charge of production, the training focused on three areas; general requirements, global gap, and fair trade and organic standards.

He explained that the training which had attracted cooperative representatives and public and private companies, was the first phase in RHODA’s series of trainings aimed at producing experts in the flower business training.

"The aim is mainly to train trainers (TOT) who will help fellow Rwandan horticultural producers to know the requirements to acquire international export certification. In the second phase, we expect to train at least 30,” he said.

The trainings supported by the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) commenced on January 31 and were conducted by the Swedish Gro-Link   Consultancy.

Kabayiza further said that currently, Rwanda still has a gap in quality assurance and low volume production due to reliance on small scale production, making it hard to compete internationally.

"We need to work hard on changing the mindset. To compete with renowned exporters, there is need to ensure regularity from the current seasonal production for a consistent supply,” he observed.

Kabayiza, however, said that the exporters are also currently faced with the problem of transporting their merchandise, saying that cargo planes will only be attracted to Rwanda after production increases.

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