{"id":4313,"date":"2026-10-07T08:50:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T08:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=4313"},"modified":"2026-10-07T08:50:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T08:50:24","slug":"rwandan-women-entrepreneurs-seek-new-buyers-at-madrid-fruit-expo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/07\/rwandan-women-entrepreneurs-seek-new-buyers-at-madrid-fruit-expo\/economy\/business\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwandan women entrepreneurs seek new buyers at Madrid fruit expo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Eleven Rwandan women entrepreneurs are using one of Europe’s major fresh-produce trade fairs to seek new buyers while strengthening relationships with international partners already sourcing from Rwanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entrepreneurs are exhibiting their products under the RwandaFresh stand at Fruit Attraction, which opened in Madrid, Spain, bringing together producers, buyers and other players from the global fruit and vegetable industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the first day, much of their activity focused on meetings with potential buyers and reconnecting with existing business partners from Europe and other international markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rwanda’s Ambassador to Spain, Christine Nkulikiyinka, visited the stand and spoke with the entrepreneurs about their businesses and the opportunities they were finding at the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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She said some of the women had already held talks with prospective buyers and were hopeful of securing new markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey told us about how they work, how they create jobs and the people they work with in Rwanda, but they are also confident they will come away with more markets,\u201d Nkulikiyinka said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entrepreneurs also raised challenges around getting their products to international markets. Nkulikiyinka said the concerns would be followed up and that the embassy would continue supporting the businesses as they encounter challenges in overseas markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One potential buyer told the ambassador that they had already purchased 190 containers from Rwanda and wanted to increase the volume of fruit and vegetables sourced from the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nkulikiyinka said the buyer praised both the quality of Rwandan products and the way they worked with suppliers in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cYou can have a good product, but if you do not do things properly, you may fail to find a buyer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ambassador also met representatives of the International Trade Centre (ITC) and SheTrades Rwanda Hub, which operates under the Private Sector Federation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The women’s participation at Fruit Attraction is supported through VIBE, a programme aimed at adding value to products and creating jobs. It is implemented by ITC and TradeMark Africa in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The entrepreneurs are using the exhibition to promote Rwandan produce, identify new export markets and build commercial relationships with buyers and partners from abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eleven Rwandan women entrepreneurs are using one of Europe’s major fresh-produce trade fairs to seek new buyers while strengthening relationships with international partners already sourcing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,2,43,53,36,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-business","category-current_affairs","category-featured-stories","category-international","category-top_stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4318,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313\/revisions\/4318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}