{"id":40858,"date":"2023-05-01T17:24:30","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T17:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business"},"modified":"2023-05-01T17:44:24","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T17:44:24","slug":"i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business","title":{"rendered":"‘I never thought I’d be a farmer’: University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>If you told 23-year-old Bonnette Ishimwe that she would be in the farming business, more so avocado, three years ago, she would take it as a joke.<\/p>\n

With two Bachelor\u2019s degrees in accounting and public procurement from the East African University Rwanda in Nyagatare, searching for a decent job in an organisation and executing tasks was what she hoped for. However, life took a turn when the Covid-10 pandemic hit.<\/p>\n

Businesses were at a standstill during that period, and Ishimwe wondered what was next. She came across an article noting how avocado is \u2018green gold\u2019 in Tanzania and Kenya, the latter being the only African nation in the top 10 producers of avocados, according to the most recent World of Statistics study.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did research and found out that Rwanda has favourable soil for avocados, and that\u2019s when I picked interest,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Ishimwe is now the founder and CEO of a Kirehe-based firm \u2018First Fruits Company Ltd\u2019, which grows avocados, mainly two types\u2014Hass (a variety of avocado with dark green, bumpy skin), and Fuerte (which is a bit smaller than the Hass and has green skin with darker spots with higher water content and lower levels of fat.)<\/p>\n

With extensive research, she got a clear vision of the avocado market, and how long avocado plantations take to mature, and so forth.<\/p>\n

Her firm came at a time when avocado is one of the agricultural exports of Rwanda that are expected to increase rampantly.<\/p>\n

As a young graduate, she also looked at the business as a means to curb the high employment rate.<\/p>\n

After coming up with a budget, and putting together the knowledge she acquired from farmers and visiting avocado farms, she asked her parents to assist with capital.<\/p>\n

Ishimwe believes that the future of her avocado businesses is bright.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t easy getting them to trust her with that kind of money, especially since she was new in the business, but they took a leap of faith and gave her Rwf 50 million which she started with.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy company owns 15 hectares of land on lease for 25 years, however, I work with 420 farmers who avail land of 247 hectares whom we partner with to buy their harvest as a way to boost their social and economic standards of living.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe train them to grow avocados for commercial purposes and fully utilise their resources, mainly land since it is the wealth they have, and 60 per cent of Rwandans are employed in the agriculture sector,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

So far, Ishimwe\u2019s company has planted avocado trees on 262 hectares, that is 85 in 2021 and 177 in 2022.<\/p>\n

Currently, she has 15 permanent employees and 50 to 100 part-time participates planting 120.000 avocado trees by September on 300 hectares, but her project will be carried out on 1000 hectares to be complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe plan to have our first harvest in June 2024, on 85 hectares where we expect to harvest 1700 tons per year but the quantity and quality increase as trees grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ishimwe says there is a demand for avocados, and hopes to export to Qatar, UAE, and Europe.<\/p>\n

Ishimwe has also gained skills in planting, and the avocado plantation is worth an estimated Rwf 250 million. \u201cIf it works out, after selling my harvest, I will be able to earn about Rwf 93 million per hectare each year,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She looks forward to establishing an industry that will manufacture items such as soaps, cooking oil, and cosmetics from avocados. Locally, the price of avocado is between Rwf 420 to Rwf 620.<\/p>\n

Some of the challenges she encounters include a lack of enough working capital to maintain the plantations, such as paying workers and buying pesticides among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have enough money to expand the project, and there is still a scarcity of skills on how to grow avocados, as we go on trips and training to learn from other experienced farmers within and outside the country. It is costly and time-consuming,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Ishimwe adds that there are not enough harvest facilities such as cooling rooms and refrigerated trucks to use while harvesting and packaging facilities and there is a need for more fertilisers at the plantations.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. If you told 23-year-old Bonnette Ishimwe that she would be in the farming business, more so avocado, three years ago, she would take it as a joke. With two Bachelor\u2019s degrees in accounting and public procurement from the East African University Rwanda in Nyagatare, searching for a decent job in an organisation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":40856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-40858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\n'I never thought I'd be a farmer': University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you told 23-year-old Bonnette Ishimwe that she would be in the farming business, more so avocado, three years ago, sh ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'I never thought I'd be a farmer': University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you told 23-year-old Bonnette Ishimwe that she would be in the farming business, more so avocado, three years ago, sh ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-01T17:24:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-01T17:44:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"‘I never thought I’d be a farmer’: University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-01T17:24:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-01T17:44:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business\"},\"wordCount\":712,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business\",\"name\":\"'I never thought I'd be a farmer': University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-01T17:24:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-01T17:44:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"If you told 23-year-old Bonnette Ishimwe that she would be in the farming business, more so avocado, three years ago, sh ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":750,\"caption\":\"'I never thought I'd be a farmer': University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"‘I never thought I’d be a farmer’: University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'I never thought I'd be a farmer': University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business - Rwanda","description":"If you told 23-year-old Bonnette Ishimwe that she would be in the farming business, more so avocado, three years ago, sh ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'I never thought I'd be a farmer': University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business","og_description":"If you told 23-year-old Bonnette Ishimwe that she would be in the farming business, more so avocado, three years ago, sh ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2023-05-01T17:24:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-01T17:44:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":750,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"‘I never thought I’d be a farmer’: University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business","datePublished":"2023-05-01T17:24:30+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-01T17:44:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business"},"wordCount":712,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Rwanda","Rwanda"],"articleSection":["all news","Economy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business","name":"'I never thought I'd be a farmer': University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-01T17:24:30+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-01T17:44:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"If you told 23-year-old Bonnette Ishimwe that she would be in the farming business, more so avocado, three years ago, sh ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1682945684.06.jpg","width":1000,"height":750,"caption":"'I never thought I'd be a farmer': University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/i-never-thought-id-be-a-farmer-university-graduate-on-venturing-into-green-gold-business#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"‘I never thought I’d be a farmer’: University graduate on venturing into \u2018green gold\u2019 business"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}