On March 22, 2018, an Australian delegation of philanthropists and business people met with Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr Gerardine Mukeshimana, and discussed on agriculture investment opportunities in Rwanda.
The delegation, led by Michael Roux the Honorary Consul-General of Rwanda to Australia, was composed of business people in Agriculture, Finance, Manufacturing, Education, Tourism, ICT, Health, Trade, Mining and Arts among others.
Minister Mukeshimana told members of the delegation that Rwanda is committed to make the agriculture sector grow as rapidly as possible, both in relation to production and commercialization, to increase rural incomes and reduce poverty.
She added that the country is very keen to work with investors who want to bring about change in country’s agriculture sector; noting that the ministry has been working very hard to improve the agriculture output.
The Minister took the opportunity to present to the delegation members the country’s vision and priorities in terms of agriculture sector development. She for instance told them that there are huge opportunities in agroprocessing, horticulture and agro-processing.
"We currently produce 2 million liters of milk per day, but we have capacity to process only 200,000 liters daily. Yet we plan to double milk production by 2024; that means we really need heavy investment in dairy processing," Minister Mukeshimana told the Australian Trade & Investment Mission.
The delegation members also asked questions related to Rwanda’s agriculture sector in a bid to know available opportunities for investment and understand the general Investment and business environment in the country.