East African Business Week

KIGALI, RWANDA --Rwanda's agricultural cooperatives have been urged to get organized if they are to benefit from available opportunities in the country.
The Minister of Trade, Francois Kaniba told members of cooperative organizations in Rwanda to double their effort in production and marketing their agro-products.
The Minister was speaking to the Rwanda Cooperatives Agency members who were celebrating The World Cooperative Day last week.
"Trade in Rwanda is done in a confusing manner at the moment, this time we will streamline it," Mr. Kaniba said.
The Minister expressed concern that production of essential food stuffs is still low. "If you want 60 tonnes of beans for example you can't get it anywhere," he noted.
The Ministry of Trade and Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA) have plans to help Irish potato and maize producers to set up wholesale markets for their food stuffs, something that will help increase production.
Mr. Damien Mugabo, the Director General of RCA mentioned the challenges cooperative members face including lack of knowledge on how cooperatives work. And for that reason RCA will carry out a series of trainings for its members.
The trainings will focus on issues of leadership, writing business plans and laws governing the cooperatives.
According to RCA, Rwandan farmers have hurdles in getting access to markets and getting the right prices for their produce as middle-men and speculators take advantage of them. "Farmers will not have to wait for traders to be merciful to them, they have to be organized,"