The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
A few years on, and the employees seem convinced. “Since I’ve been working here, I’ve been able to build a house with a tin roof, I can pay for my son’s schooling and buy everything I need,” says 55-year-old Stephanie Mukamana, busily weeding around a geranium plant.
Last year, Rwanda exported around 14 tonnes of essential oils — geranium, moringa, patchouli and tagetes — bringing in $473,000, according to the National Agricultural Export Development Board.
Rwanda is also cultivating pyrethrum, used in natural insecticides.
– Growth market –
According to the India-based firm Market Research Future (MRFR), essential oils are increasingly in demand in richer countries for use in cosmetics, food and pharmaceuticals. The world market is forecast to grow by seven percent between 2017 and 2022, says MRFR.
To get its share of the cake, Rwanda opened an essential oil laboratory three years ago, the first of its kind in the region, allowing quality control.
“One of the main challenges facing Rwanda is a growing trade deficit and a limited number of competitive companies that can meet regional and international export standards,” says Patience Mutesi, Rwanda director for TradeMark East Africa, which promotes regional trade and helped fund the lab project.
The laboratory will “enable Rwandan companies to access new and lucrative markets… by strengthening consumer confidence in the quality of Rwandan products,” she says.
Sitting in front of a brand new chromatogram in the Kigali laboratory, Antoine Mukunzi, a Rwanda Standards Authority official, is satisfied with his small country’s progress: “We cannot compete in terms of exported volumes, but we can in terms of quality.”
