Strawberry farming offers Rwanda economic, nutritional diversification

Rwanda has identified strawberries as high value fruits with high market and investment potential the country can bank on to balance its imports while contributing to improved nutrition. This follows the government's ambitious national policy and strategic plan aimed at the development of the country's horticultural sector.

Findings from a report presented on Tuesday by Rwanda's Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources in partnership with HortInvest, a project supported by the Netherlands, showed Rwanda could produce an estimated 500 metric tons of strawberries per year.

On the other hand, current imports stand at over 60 tons per year, indicating that Rwanda has promising local market potential for the crop.

"Strawberries are a high value commodity, it not an inferior good. Producing enough strawberries in the country will bring profitability, and a substitute for imports," Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze, Rwanda's minister of agriculture and animal resources, said in the capital, Kigali.

Ngabitsinze stressed farmers should take full advantage of the available market and embrace strawberry farming. He also stated the government will keep strengthening the capacity of farmers to meet the required quality and standards of produce for the high value market.

"I urge our local processors to closely work with local producers and strawberry farmers in line with bridging the gap in imports of strawberries and use fresh strawberries from Rwandan farmers," Ngabitsinze said.

The report, titled, "Strawberry Value Chain Analysis and Market Assessment in Rwanda", revealed the strawberry crop is less known by the public and cultivated by few small-scale farmers. This indicated there exists a high potential for commercial farming of strawberries as an innovative and high value crop in Rwanda.

Two categories of varieties of strawberry are available in the country, according to the report, the local variety and the technologically improved variety. Overall, 45 percent of farmers use local varieties, 37 percent use improved varieties and 16 percent use both varieties.