Rwandan exporters have reason to smile after government reached a deal with Ethiopian Airlines to transport exports to Congo Brazzaville. According to the agreement between the Ethiopian flag carrier and RwandAir, Rwanda Development Board and traders, at least 30 tonnes of Rwanda’s exports to Brazzaville will be airlifted twice a week. However, this can be expanded to 60 tonnes depending on the demand of the products and expansion of market, officials said, yesterday, during the maiden landing of the cargo plane at Kigali International Airport. Most of the products to be exported are vegetables, meat, milk, flour and other agricultural products. Expanding tradeAlthough RwandAir flies to Brazzaville, it could not satisfy the demand of traders since it focuses on passengers, leaving little space for cargo. This forced some traders to halt their businesses. Francois Kanimba, the trade and industry minister, said the new initiative is in line with government’s plan to expand the regional trade as well as minimise the country’s trade deficit.He said last year, the country exported goods worth $800m (Rwf 520b),while imported products valued at over $2.2 billion seen as a huge challenge to the country’s economic development. “We are searching for markets and having new cargo planes but the challenge we are now likely to face is lack of enough exports meaning that Rwandans now should be aggressive and enter the market,” the minister said in interview at the Airport. He said according to the travel survey made by ministry and a group of traders, the West African countries possess the huge potential market for the local products adding the local traders should start involving in transition with neighboring countries to access the products for exports.Most demanded products ranges from meat, flour, maize beans, vegetables and other agricultural goods. He added the target to increase the exports at least by 28% annually which requires export increment. The Minister added that they intend to venture into more market hunt but this time with Middle East countries starting with Turkey this month, Qatar, Oman in June. Dr Ndambe Nzaramba, deputy Director General of National Agricultural Export Board-NAEB highlighted that the approach would be expanding the awareness campaign to the traders to double the production. He mentioned previously the traders were exporting around five to eight tonnes of goods to Brazzaville. He projected the increment of exports since the transport means were availed. Traders speak out Lilian Karigirwa an exporter said the new plane will not only boost the traders’ business but also the economic development of the country depending on the export volume. “Transport was a huge challenge; we used to export by RwandAir but they couldn’t manage the capacity of our goods and it had pushed some of us out of business,” she said.Recent statistics from the National Bank of Rwanda indicates that the country’s cross border trade increased by over 45 per cent. Rwanda’s informal exports totalled $101.8m (about Rwf64.5b) in 2012, up from $71.5m (about Rwf45.3b) in 2011, thus registering an increase of 45.8 per cent. The exports were mainly dominated by transactions with DR Congo, which accounted for 75 per cent of total cross-border exports last year.
