Rwandan growers who produce juice and jam from strawberries are set to double their production capacity as they plan to grow a new strawberry variety dubbed “Bravura strawberry variety”. This strawberry was recently imported from the Netherlands.
Emmanuel Mporwiki is the president of the 24-member COOPEDUSH cooperative. The cooperative, based in Karongi District, embraced agro-processing in 2010 after finding it hard to get a market for their produce. Mporwiki said that the cooperative produces juice and jam from strawberry and are in the process of acquiring the new imported variety on 12 hectares.
He added that the cooperative has been outsourcing strawberries from other cooperatives, saying growing the variety on their own is promising to provide them with enough raw materials to produce juices and jam.
“We planted in February this year and we started harvesting after three months. We are harvesting at least 100 kgs per week and we sell at Rwf3, 000 per kg (€2.49). Because it is a trial we plan to expand them to a bigger area,” he told. With the new variety, farmers harvest twice a week in a period of up to three years, before production begins to plummet.
