ACES graduate hopes to become Rwanda's leading supplier of rabbit meat
An ACES graduate is hoping to use cold-chain technology to supply rabbit meat to upmarket bars, restaurants and supermarkets across the country.
Albertine Uwajeneza, a cold-chain technician and rabbit farmer from Muhanga, Rwanda, was one of several entrepreneurs who presented their business plans last month at the ACES Festival of Cooling in Kigali.
The 28-year-old has been running her farm for three years and has around 100 rabbits.
"Rabbits are easy to take care of, and in my area, rabbit has many customers." she explained.
“Currently, I’m just supplying the rabbits to my customers live, not as meat, because I don’t have a cooling system. But there are customers who need the meat instead of live rabbits, so when I get the cooling system running, I can supply many more customers.”
Rabbits mature within four to seven months, meaning they are ready for market much faster than other livestock. The meat is also considered healthier than red meats like beef or lamb because it is less fatty.
Albertine said she was "inspired" to start her business by her father, who was a goat farmer. Through her ACES training and her day job as a cold-chain technician for Zipline, a drone delivery company, Albertine became familiar with cold-chains and started thinking about how to introduce the technology on her farm.
"ACES encouraged me to get the innovation of cooling systems in my farm.” she said.
“My target is to buy a car with a fridge for transportation, which can prevent my meat from being wasted. With this, I can be available any time to supply any customer, and even expand my market from Muhanga to Kigali.”
She also hopes to market by-products such as fur, bones and manure. Down the line, Albertine hopes to convince fellow rabbit farmers to form a cooperative, to share cold-chain facilities and market their produce together.
She added: "After getting my certificate of cold-chain, I spoke to [rabbit farmers in my community] and they were very happy about the idea."
She is now looking for investors and partners to establish a pilot cold-chain system.