DMS Lat 25° 16' 37.1532'' N Lon 55° 17' 46.4964'' E
WHY THE SUCCESS
OF THE RWANDAN
AVOCADO IS A SIGN
OF LOGISTICAL
EXCELLENCE
34903 93409
(src: FAOSTAT (sept. 09, 2021)

01
How a new logistics hub is expanding opportunity in central Africa

Rwandan avocados are the best in the world,” says Sumeet Bhardwaj, CEO at DP World in Kigali. “I’ve lived in South Africa, had avocados from Kenya, Uganda, and other countries, and I can say for sure the Rwandan avocados are of very high quality – in taste and size.”

(src: FAOSTAT (sept. 09, 2021)

But it’s only in the past couple of years that Rwandan avocados have really taken off in the global market. In fact, until very recently, Rwanda exported very little produce aside from the tea and coffee, which the country is famous for.

So how did Rwanda become Africa’s second-largest exporter of avocados, its fruit lining supermarket shelves everywhere from Seattle to Shanghai?

The answer is a mix of targeted investment, government support, and crucial enabling infrastructure like Kigali’s new state-of-the-art logistics hub.

02
The impact of logistical inefficiency

For a low-income, landlocked country like Rwanda, exports have always been an issue. The two nearest gateway seaports – Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, and Mombasa in Kenya – are roughly 1,700km away.

Before DP World's new logistics facilities in Kigali opened in Rwanda, there was scarcity of proper warehouses and container space, so trucks would often stand on the road for up to two weeks after arriving in the capital, waiting to offload their cargo. This resulted in cost implications and delays throughout the whole supply chain. The Truck detention fees amounted to $150-$200 a day: unplanned costs like this had a devastating impact on traders, who would make a loss due to high logistics cost and ruin client relationships.

S 25° 16' 37.1532'' N
S 25° 16' 37.1532'' N
S 25° 16' 37.1532'' N

03
Connecting the cold chain

Since 2018, the Kigali logistics platform has acted as a “seaport without the sea,” says Bhardwaj. The facility is enormous, boasting 30,000 square meters of warehouse space, 50,000 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit containers) throughput capacity, and crucially, Africa’s second modular cold store – essentially a 500 square meter refrigerated container.

Working with Rwanda’s National Agricultural Export Board, DP World's new logistics facilities in Kigali uses its cold store and distribution services to establish an unbroken cold chain, handling everything from collecting the avocados from the farms to washing, sorting, and packing, before forwarding direct delivery to the aircraft.

The same facilities are also used for all sorts of perishable crops, from fruits and vegetables to fish and flowers, substantially increasing opportunities for Rwandan producers.

04
“If you grow, we grow”

Of course, the strongest cold chain in the world won’t mean a thing if it’s unaffordable. It’s a point Bhardwaj is keen to underline, “At DP World, our philosophy is ‘if you grow, we grow.’” That means bringing the cost of logistics down to make it accessible for as many people as possible.

Thanks to the new Kigali facility, the entire logistics process is streamlined and managed end-to-end. Goods arrive for forwarding within 2-3 days, eliminating those fortnight-long delays and devastating truck detention fees. And the logistics hub features many innovations designed to improve cost efficiency.

One of these is Africa’s first Very Narrow Aisle (VNA) electric forklift and racking systems that increases warehouse capacity fourfold. Digital operating systems connect importers and exporters directly with freight-forwarders and shipping lines, cutting out expensive third-party agents. And an integrated Terminal Operation System directly connects DP World’s warehousing with banking and customs, dramatically improving administrative efficiency.

Those savings are passed on to traders, freeing resources to re-invest. The hope, says Bhardwaj, is that “their revenue will grow. GDP will grow. And we will see a steady growth in the Rwandan middle-class.”

05
Building the Rwandan middle class

Ultimately, Bhardwaj believes that DP World’s mission is to improve standards of living wherever it operates by connecting the region to the wider global markets.

He expands with a striking example of success. “Gashora Farms started as a very small, six-hectare chilli farm. Working with the National Agricultural Export Board, we provided end-to-end logistics for exporting its product all over the world. Today, Gashora Farms is looking at expanding to 160 hectares.” And it has become one of Rwanda’s number one exporters.

From dominating the global avocado market to expanding chilli farms, this is a profound example of the power of infrastructure to transform an economy, expand opportunity, and enable real people to realize their ambitions.

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