The Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) has ordered the closure of a palm oil manufacturing plant located in Kicukiro, Kigali City.Philippe Nzaire, the Director of Quality Assurance at RBS, said the factory known by its French acronym SOCACI (Soaps Cartons and Cosmetics Industry) was manufacturing substandard oil commonly known as Amamesa.“Palm oil manufactured in Rwanda is substandard and it is not allowed to be sold because it can be harmful to people’s health. So, we have temporarily banned its manufacture and we are still sensitising people to be aware of it,”said Nzaire.The decision was reached last Wednesday; however, the factory had been ordered to close earlier in April this year after all its other products, including cosmetics and boxes were ascertained to be below par. “We gave the owner of the factory a grace period to refine palm oil after buying all required materials but he failed. We have banned the products manufactured in the interest of consumers,” he said.He explained that the only palm oil permitted to be sold on the Rwandan market is “Iyagiriye mu Mutoyi” that is refined in Burundi.The official warned the public against using substandard palm oil, which he said is smuggled into the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through Burundi and Uganda.However, palm oil dealers say the ban was abrupt.Perez Benimana, the head of Le Palmier cooperative, said the decision was not taken in good faith since the grace period they had been given to start refining the oil to the required standards was yet to expire.“RBS gave us 14 months and 18 days, we have documents attesting to that. So how can they stop us after two months,” Benimana wondered, adding that they were already counting losses.“Since May, we have over 84 tonnes of non-refined oil, 1,800 jerry cans of refined oil in stock yet we have bank loans and other responsibilities,” he lamented.“RBS says we lack standards, but when you check what we are missing, it is one parameter against seven,” he said.A mini survey by The New Times in Kigali city indicates many restaurants use palm oil for cooking.Claudine Niyongira, the owner of the modest Ituze Restaurant in Nyabugogo, said she uses palm oil to prepare green vegetable sauce made from cassava leaves (Isombe) which most of her clients prefer. “Most of my clients come often in the morning to eat isombe because it is tasteful; we cook it using palm oil without frying. It makes it delicious than any other kind of oil,” Niyongira said.“No oil cooks Isombe better than palm oil and without it, I can’t cook it because nobody will eat it, even myself,” she adds.“Nowadays, we don’t know where to buy palm oil because people are selling it on the black market. We used to buy it for Rwf 800 per kilogram but now it costs Rwf1,500 or above. Sometimes it is totally unavailable on the market,” she observed.
