Inside Ikijumba One Stop Shop, a leading food processing company in Rwanda

Inside Ikijumba One Stop Shop, a leading food processing company in Rwanda

Ikijumba One Stop Shop is a food processing company in Rwanda, located in Ntunga Cell, Mwurire Sector, Rwamagana District, Eastern Province.

It manufactures a wide range of t products like bread, juices and snacks from sweet potatoes like, Chapatti, Sambusa, Sandwich, Andazi, Biscuits and Cakes.

The business officially opened in 2022 but it is a product of 19 years of hard work through the support of Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) and International Potato Center (CIP).

According to the founder of Ikijumba One Stop Shop, Mr Habumuremyi Jean Marie Vianney, the business is growing. In the beginning they were using between 200 and 300 kilos of potatoes per day, currently they have reached three tons a day.

At least 1200 people buy the products of Ikijumba One Stop Shop on a daily basis.

The company employs more than 126 staff and works with 8700 small farmers who supply sweet potatoes.

“A good number of people think of sweet potatoes as food for poor people but that is not true. Our brand name is associated with the importance of sweet potatoes. So anyone who thinks they are of little value would be wrong”, Mr Habumuremyi said.

Mr Habumuremyi is grateful to CIP for having provided the training about the value of orange fleshed potatoes.

Sweet potatoes Hub

Currently, Habumuremyi is working on 42 hectares of land in sweet potato growing on his own and more than 6300 hectares for farmers he is working with.

“We want to build a sweet potato processing plant that can be ten times the size of the current one and we plan to make more biscuits so as to satisfy the local market and even reach the international one”, he said.

He added: “In five years, we want the sweet potato hub both in Rwanda and in East Africa to be here in Rwamagana District, so that anyone who wants to know information about sweet potatoes will find it here.”

Talking about challenges, Habumuremyi said it is not easy to obtain standard documents and the right packaging.

Nsengiyumva Xavier, one of the employees, said getting a job in this factory was beneficial for him as he is able to earn money to support his family. He said he is inspired to start his own business in the future.

The products of Ikijumba One Stop Shop

·      Ikijumba Butter loaf bread

·      Ikijumba Milk loaf bread

·      Ikijumba Pain Crème bread

·      Ikijumba Pain France

·      Ikijumba Pain mix

·      Ikijumba Chocolate bread

·      Ikijumba Danish Bread

·      Ikijumba Sandwich,

·      Ikijumba Biscuit

·      Ikijumba Vanilla Cakes

·      Ikijumba Mulble Cakes

·      Ikijumba Banana Cakes

·      Ikijumba Capati

·      Ikijumba doughnut

Mwizera Hervé, CIP’s potato value addition officer said that the company has made a positive step in the potato processing.

He said, “It’s an enterprise that started from far but it is growing quickly. In general, the beneficiaries we have visited are at a satisfactory level, which gives us hope that they will continue to work. We will continue to provide them with technical assistance by connecting them with farmer groups and looking for sweet potato markets.”

“We want what they have done to be known to inspire others who want to start it and see that it is possible so that the sweet potato can find a market all over the country,” he added.