Rwanda hopes to cut fish imports by increasing local production, as well as raise the per capita consumption of products from this protein-rich aquatic animal, through a €15.5 million (about Rwf18.2 billion) project dubbed KWIHAZA, officials have indicated.

The project, which was launched on Wednesday, March 22, was funded by the European Union (with €10 million) and Luxembourg (with €5.5 million).

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This 4-year programme (2023-2026) seeks to support the transformation towards sustainable food systems, through developing the value chains in the aquaculture, fishery and horticulture sectors.

Fish farmer and investor Themistocles Munyangeyo said that access to quality and affordable feed has generally been an unmet need for the producers, an issue he said the project should give a priority so as to contribute to reducing fish imports.

He indicated that the costs varied depending on the needed nutrients based on fish growth stage, from Rwf2,500 a kilogramme of imported fish feed highly rich in protein for small fish, and Rwf15,000 for the grown fish.

"The expensive fish fee increases the cost of production, ultimately resulting in the costly product, which makes us local producers unable to be competitive with the imported fish which is cheap because of the relatively low production cost,” he said, citing imported fish from China and neighbouring countries.

The project proponents said that smallholder producers in these sectors are characterised by low production and profitability and need more technical competence.

Factors constraining these sectors include poor processing and cold chain infrastructure and logistics; limited access to finance, and weakly implemented quality assurance systems, norms, and standards, among others.

The project will promote the development of aquaculture, fishery and horticulture sectors by providing training to smallholders and setting up research centers to improve the quality of produce and to meet market standards.

The Resident Representative of the Belgian development agency Enabel in Rwanda, Dirk Deprez, said that most of the project will be focusing on aquaculture, but still an element also be focusing on horticulture.

He pointed out that they will, among other interventions, work on cold chains to ensure that the produced fish reaches the market in good quality, and support the private sector to invest in these value chains which create great opportunities.

For the horticulture sector, the project will focus on value-adding through improved handling, processing, conditioning and on reducing food loss and waste by quality management along the value chain (aggregation, storing, packaging, transport and distribution) of high value produce for national and regional markets.

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In the fish industry, main areas of interventions include value chain development through improving performance and productivity of fishpond and cage farm activities; and access to affordable, quality inputs and extension services such as fingerlings, and fish feed.

Fish targets

The Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ildephonse Musafiri, said that this initiative is aligned with the national priorities, namely the strategic plan for agriculture transformation, as well as the national strategy for transformation, which are focusing mainly on agriculture as the main pillar to economic growth and transformation.

He said that the aquaculture, fisheries and horticulture sectors tremendously increased over the past decade, indicating that fish production almost tripled over the past 10 years from the 16,000 tonnes in 2011 to 44,000 tonnes in 2022.

"This initiative for the next four years, I see an opportunity for the promotion of the private sector investment that will continue to strengthen the development of aquaculture, fisheries and horticulture sectors. I am sure this project will help us reduce our fish import bill, and make fish affordable in the country,” he said, adding that it will help to minimise post-harvest losses and improve access to local and regional markets.

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The Deputy Director General for Animal Resources Development at RAB, Solange Uwituze, said that though Rwanda reached 44,000 tonnes of fish production in 2022, it is slightly less than half of the target for that year which was 90,000 tonnes. She added that the country targets to produce 112,000 tonnes of fish per year by 2024.

This new project, Uwituze indicated, is a major boost towards supporting the country to get closer to its fish production target, pointing out that they want to significantly raise the share of fish farming in the country.