Rwanda’s exports to China rose by more than 87 percent to a record high $131 million (approximately Rwf 168 billion) in 2023, the Chinese ambassador to Rwanda Wang Xuekun has said.

The rise in the exports, according to the embassy, was driven by imports like coffee, tea and dried chilli.

In 2021, Rwanda and China signed a protocol that would allow the former to export dried chili to China. Prior to that, some Rwandan companies had already signed cooperation agreements with Chinese buyers and were hoping for the signing of the protocol.

For instance, in 2019, Rwandan agribusiness entrepreneur Dieudonné Twahirwa landed a deal to supply 50,000 tonnes of dried chilli worth $100 million every year to China.

In addition to this, in 2018, different Rwandan coffee brands debuted on the Chinese online market, particularly selling on Tmall Global, a cross-border import platform of Alibaba.

This was made possible by the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), a deal signed between Rwanda and the e-commerce company in 2018, seeking to open doors for small businesses in Africa to take part in the cross-border electronic trade by availing their products to the Chinese market.

Besides trade, Xuekun mentioned that Rwanda has become a gateway for many Chinese companies to explore the market of East Africa and wider Africa.

“Some examples include Dongfeng Motors, RWK TV, one herbal medicine company, and a shoe factory, etc. They all discovered Rwanda’s potential and came on their own. Their presence also gives me a surprise,” he noted.

“To my knowledge, the Chinese herbal company generates 5 million USD in profits annually. The shoe factory has not been running for long but has already employed more than 1,000 people. They plan to further expand production to sneakers besides slippers, to export to other countries, and want to hire more employees,” he added.