Rwandan Private Sector Says Border Incident with Burundi Sparked Local Maize Seed Production

The Head of Advocacy at the Private Sector Federation (PSF), Callixte Kanamugire, has revealed that a 2013 border standoff with Burundi over a shipment of maize seeds pushed Rwanda to accelerate local seed production and reduce reliance on imports.

Speaking during the PSF General Assembly held in Kigali on October 17, 2025, Kanamugire said the private sector has been instrumental in cutting Rwanda’s import dependence by investing in domestic production.

For years, Rwanda imported agricultural seeds, especially maize, from Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania due to limited local production. However, Kanamugire recalled a turning point more than a decade ago when Burundi blocked Rwandan-bound trucks carrying maize seeds from Zambia.

“Trucks came from Zambia, about 18 or 20, and reached the Burundi-Rwanda border. The Burundians refused to let them cross. That was around 2013,” Kanamugire recounted. “The maize had to be returned to Bujumbura, shipped back to Zambia and re-exported to Rwanda through Tanzania.”

The disruption delayed maize planting by up to three weeks and caused significant losses, affecting harvests and crippling maize processing factories that relied on the delayed supply.

According to Kanamugire, the incident exposed Rwanda’s vulnerability to external supply shocks and “woke up the private sector,” which began investing in seed multiplication programs to boost local production.

“Within two years, maize seeds started being produced in Rwanda,” he said. “The country needed 3,500 tonnes per quarter, and local producers were already supplying 5,000 tonnes. This shows the potential we have but are not fully using.”

Kanamugire emphasized that Rwanda must increase domestic production to cut imports and save foreign currency.

“Buying goods from abroad consumes a lot of foreign exchange. We must produce locally and export to earn forex, which can be used for essential imports like medicines and medical equipment,” he said.

Rwanda currently has 85 large-scale agro-processing industries and 608 small-scale processing plants. Despite this growth, the country still relies heavily on imports. In 2024, Rwanda imported goods worth $6.5 billion, up from $3.1 billion in 2017, leaving a trade deficit of $2.3 billion.

The government has recently prioritized agricultural transformation and industrialization to reduce its import bill. Last year, Rwanda also announced that fruits consumed locally are now being sourced from within the country, further boosting import substitution efforts.