Natural Resources and Trade

Rwanda is a country with scarce natural resources.  The majority of Rwanda’s economy is agricultural.  With a high population density most of the agriculture is for subsistence.  It’s primary food exports are coffee and tea.  There is a significant imbalance between Rwanda's imports and exports.

Coffee production began in Rwanda in 1925 when the Belgians started a coffee program by obligating chiefs to dedicate time and land to grow the crop.[1]  Establishing coffee growing in Rwanda was successful.  Between 1929 and 1937 coffee exports went from 50 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes.[2]  In 2015, Rwanda exported over 18,000 tonnes of the 22,000 tonnes of coffee that it produced.[3]

The second largest export sector in Rwanda comes from mining.  Some of these include gold and tungsten.[4]  Ores and metals exports accounted for 30 percent of Rwanda’s GDP in 2015 compared with the 40 percent that came from agricultural exports.[5]

Rwanda lies within the Central Corridor Trade Route.  The Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA) oversees a network that connects the Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.[6]  Rwanda is a landlocked nation and relies on the Corridor Highway as the main way to transport imports and exports. The country is lagging behind many other nations but is experiencing growth from plans to increase the country’s GDP.

 

"Central Corridor Trade Route," CCTTFA Official Map, http://centralcorridor-ttfa.org/about-us/central-corridor-trade-route/

The top three countries that Rwanda exports to are the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United States, and China.  Exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2015 totaled 168 million US dollars, compared to 66 million to the United States.[7]  A significant amount of export to the Democratic Republic of Congo has its roots in the Belgian rule of Rwanda in the early 20^th century.  Rwanda was used to supply the Belgian Congo with labor for the Katanga copper mines and to supply it with food.[8]  

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[1] John Reader, Africa: A Biography of the Continent (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 620.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Emmanuel Ntirenganya, “NAEB Roots for Local Coffee Consumption to Boost Market, Revenues,” The New Times (July 12, 2016), http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2016-07-12/201594/.    

[4] “Mining,” Rwanda Development Board, http://www.rdb.rw/rdb/mining.html.

[5] “General Profile: Rwanda,” United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, http://unctadstat.unctad.org/CountryProfile/GeneralProfile/en-GB/646/index.html.

[6] “Central Corridor Trade Route,” Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency, http://centralcorridor-ttfa.org/about-us/central-corridor-trade-route/.

[7] “General Profile: Rwanda,” UNCTAD.

[8] John Reader, Africa: A Biography of the Continent.