A forklift loads pallets of freshly packed Rwandan avocados for dispatch, part of a landmark 70-tonne consignment bound for the UAE. Photo by TradeMark Africa.
Rwanda has exported 70 tonnes of avocados to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in a single charter flight, linking more than 1,000 smallholder farmers to an international market and creating temporary employment opportunities, particularly for young women.
The development was highlighted by TradeMark Africa in an update on its X platform and detailed in a statement issued on September 17, 2026. The shipment, equivalent to three containerloads of avocados moved in one airlift, was exported by Kumwe Green Farms Limited.
According to TradeMark Africa, 70 percent of the more than 1,000 farmers who supplied the consignment were young women, underscoring the role of horticultural exports in expanding economic opportunities for young people in Rwanda.
The export was facilitated through the Value-Added Initiative to Boost Employment (VIBE) programme, implemented by TradeMark Africa in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. The five-year programme, running from 2023 to 2028, is designed to create dignified and fulfilling employment opportunities for young people, particularly young women, by strengthening market access in sectors including horticulture, poultry, dairy and meat.
TradeMark Africa said the impact of the avocado order extended beyond the farmers who produced the fruit, generating paid work at different stages of the supply chain, including harvesting, sorting, transportation and packing.
About 200 informal field roles were linked to harvesting, sorting and transportation of the consignment, with young women accounting for a significant share of the workers. At the packhouse, the four-day operation ran day and night and engaged 64 casual workers each day, with about 90 percent of them being women, most of whom were young.
The shipment was supplied through Kumwe Green Farms’ network of smallholder farmers and involved coordinating production, aggregation, quality assurance, packaging and export logistics to meet the requirements of the UAE market.
Kumwe Green Farms owner Fred Rwigamba said the export demonstrated that smallholder farmers could supply international buyers at commercial scale when market access, aggregation and logistics were properly coordinated.
“This shipment shows that Rwanda’s smallholder farmers can supply an international buyer at scale when the market, aggregation and logistics are well aligned,” Rwigamba said, according to TradeMark Africa.
TradeMark Africa Rwanda Country Director Rosine Uwamariya described the shipment as a milestone because the export order connected an international market opportunity to more than 1,000 farmers while creating employment opportunities for young women across the value chain.
“The real milestone is that an export order reverberated all the way back to more than 1,000 smallholder farmers and created paid opportunities for young women at several points in the value chain,” Uwamariya said.
The VIBE programme has also supported wider export and employment outcomes. TradeMark Africa said the initiative has so far generated an estimated $9.7 million in exports and more than 32,000 job opportunities for young people, mostly young women.
The avocado shipment adds to Rwanda’s efforts to expand its horticultural exports by connecting smallholder production to overseas markets. It also illustrates how a single export order can generate economic activity beyond the farm, involving workers and businesses in aggregation, processing, packaging, transportation and logistics.
