From the eastern province of Rwanda, the INTAMBWE cooperative has been processing exotic fruits such as pineapples, passion fruits and beetroots into tasty juices since 2014 with the help of the Cooperative Support Programme (CSP). The cooperative was first created in 2009 by pineapple farmers in order to produce and sell whole fruits. However, in this capacity the cooperative gained a very minimal profit due to the low price of whole fruits in the Rwandan rural areas. In 2014 the cooperative started thinking of alternative ways to process the fruit. “We started juice processing after realizing that we were making little profit in selling pineapple fruits and it was not helping to raise the incomes of cooperative members and to create jobs,” explains to Gerard, the president of INTAMBWE. So how did they do it?

In 2014 farmers started processing and selling juice from a dispenser in small quantities to the local community. Following this success they began in 2015 selling juice properly packaged in bottles with also exploring new lucrative local markets segments. With 10 permanent employees, the current production capacity of INTAMBWE processing factory is 1,000 L/ day, which has increased from 450 L/ day in 2014.

The CSP of Spark-Rwanda has supported INTAMBWE with marketing issues and by providing business advisory services, “under the guidance of SPARK we started juice processing, packaging and selling. The skills and advices we got helped our business grow. When we were making these changes, we had to consider risks and opportunities, and develop plans accordingly; to perform this, SPARK has enabled us to have a real understanding of business dynamics under which we are operating,” said Gerard.

SPARK has also linked INTAMBWE with DUTERIMBERE, a local micro finance institution, so the cooperative was able to access a loan worth of 3,500,000 Rwandan francs in which machines were bought to expand the business. In addition to these, under the CSP program, trainings and coaching services on access to finance, loan managemnent and financial literacy were provided.

Compared to their competitors, INTAMBWE juice is processed in a way that retains the taste of the fresh fruits with low sugar content and low prices. The juice is extracted from fresh fruits while competitors use imported or stored concentrates. Due to locally sourcing strategy, the business is contributing much in providing a market for fruit farmers and consequently increasing their income, but also in job creation among community members.  For the future of the business, Gerard anticipates growing and having bigger market shares and to expect reasonable profits generated from the business.