Minerals lead exports with 35% share in Revenues

Rwanda encountered a significant growth in its exports rising from USD 75m reaching to a peak USD 202m in 2007. This is partly due to the emergence of the minerals which were nonexistent in 2002, started to be exported in 2003 producing USD 12m then steadily increased in 2004 through to 2007 to become the most lucrative export with USD 71m of revenues.

Tourism and Coffee being the first and Second runner up with USD 42m and USD 36m respectively. Coffee did enjoy the top spot in 2006 with USD 54m but was dethroned by Minerals in 2007. Exports such as fruits, vegetables, handcrafts , flowers all classified as “Other” were leading the exports back in 2002 with 48% share of revenue but considerably fall to USD 13m in 2004 to slightly increase and level at USD 21m representing 10.3% of export revenues .