From October 4 to 6, 2022, Rwanda hosted Poultry Africa 2022, a conference and exhibition event about the poultry value chain.

Held at the Kigali Convention Center (KCC), the event attracted more than 120 exhibiting companies from more than 20 countries and welcomed more than 2,000 visitors, decision-makers, and buyers.

While officially opening the event, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Gerardine Mukeshimana, urged Rwanda’s poultry business owners to take advantage of the presence of the captains of the industry and establish lasting business partnerships to improve their respective poultry operations.

“Rwanda’s poultry industry is transforming from subsistence to a more knowledge intensive and market oriented poultry farming,” she said.

The country’s five years Livestock Master Plan has identified poultry as one of the avenues to contribute to national food security, nutrition security, income generation and job creation. It projected an increase of 124% in chicken meat and 110% in egg production to 2023.

Rwanda’s poultry industry has been growing. In 2019, it had 15 large commercial poultry farmers, 108 medium, and 222 small commercial poultry farmers. Since then, it has grown to have: 27 large commercial poultry farmers, 258 medium poultry farmers, and 265 small commercial poultry farmers.

The growth has translated into more availability of both meat and eggs in the country, with the national egg production increasing from 2,452 MT in 2019 to 8,272 MT in 2021 (337% increase) while the target is to reach 19,403 Metric Tons of eggs per year by 2024.

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