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“Weaving Dreams into prosperity: A Story of Value Addition in Rwanda”

Silk : From Soil to Neck Tie.. UTEXRWA in Rwanda, is the

only company in the whole world having a fully – vertically integrated Silk production facility, from Soil to neck- Tie (final product) under one roof.

This all have been made possible with in the last three years.

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Introduction

Our efforts are helping to improve the capacity of people to overcome poverty and participate fully in their societies.

We were n we are…! 1985-starts operation 1989-92 Backward and Forward

Integration. 1993- US$ 20 Mil. Sales Revenue. 1994-War and Destruction 1995-Sales plummeted to $ 3.5 Mil.. 1999-Sales $5.5 Mil. with Cash losses

$2.5 Mil. Today Sales of $7 mil, with profits

$1mil. Increase in Sales, $1.5 Mil, Improved

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The HISTORY.. 1985-95 UTEXRWA in Rwanda, as a Textile Industry,

was established in 1985 and it became a vertically Integrated Textile manufacturing Industry by 1992 with a Sales of USD 20 Mil. in 1993.

1994 Civil War and Genocide resulted in loss of lives of 300 of its trained labor. Destruction of Property, loss of export market due to the absence in the time of closure for 8 months, hike in cost of inputs increase in the price of Energy have brought down the Sales revenues from $ 20 Mil. in 1993 to $3.5 Mil in 1995.

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Getting STARTED…

A Technocrat in India learns about Rwanda for the first time and gets attracted to support the deserving fellow human beings.

Gets the task of closure of an ailing Industry and turns it into an Innovative Business Organization, which gets Best Creator of Employments – 2008 Award in the Country.

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In 1999.. Came to Rwanda, as a Textile

Technologist with Masters in Business Administration.

Offered to manage this company with $5.5 Mil in Sales revenue and $2.5 Mil cash losses.

Tasked by the Share-Holders to close down the factory.

No Raw-Material for textiles produced in Rwanda.

I pleaded to allow me to attempt the revival of the business with no further financial assistance/investment from the shareholders.

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Innovating IDEA.. Rwanda was similar to the place I come from

– southern India where Sericulture activities were creating employment.

Rwanda is good for Sericulture as it has Fertile Volcanic soil and climatic conditions rain fall over 8 months in a year, good to grow Mulberry and rear Silk-Worms to produce quality Cocoons.

Rwanda’s >90% Population are subsistence farmers, earning less than a dollar a day so a better paying Agro Activity would help.

.

Encouragement of the PRESIDENT I had an occasion to meet the President

Paul Kagame in June 2000 and briefed him the possibility of Silk production in Rwanda through Sericulture which can generate employment and export revenues. Requested to help to revive the ailing textile company.

Accepted to consider the prospects of introducing Sericulture in the country.

Brought about 100 Mulberry cuttings from India and planted in different parts of Rwanda.

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Success STORY.. Since I hade submitted an approach paper

in 2001 on Sericulture in Rwanda, by the year 2003 an expert from FAO-Geneva, , Dr. Lee was assigned to study the prospects of Sericulture in Rwanda.

He started experimenting, hatching the silk worm eggs which were brought from South Korea and fed the worms with the Rwandan mulberry leaves. We jointly found that the silk worms were growing nicely to become quality cocoons.

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Support from MINADEF..

In the year 2003, the Government of Rwanda was looking out for alternate employments for the demobilized Soldiers from DRC.

As a major Local supplier of Uniforms to the Ministry of Defense I had a chance to attract the attention of the Secretary General to suggest the possibility of Sericulture as an alternate employment to the demobilized soldiers and their families.

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Report of MINADEF Officers As the report of the FAO expert become

handy, the MINADEF sent four of its officers to South Korea, to get trained in Sericulture. They came and reported that it’s possible to do the project.

It was informed to the President Kagame during the annual review meeting in December 2004 that Sericulture could be an alternate source of employment to the demobilized soldiers.

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Proven SUGGESTION..

That reminded HE Paul Kagame, that my suggestions in the year 2000 is proven correct and therefore he immediately tasked the Ministry of Agriculture to expand the Sericulture in the country and include this as a prioritized cluster of growth under Vision 2020 of Rwanda by targeting 10,000 hectares of Mulberry Cultivation in Rwanda.

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Effort of MINADEF…

The Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Defense jointly promoted 4 centers of model Sericulture farms in 4 different regions of the country and were trying to produce cocoons with the help of our shared knowledge and were trying to export them. Then we suggested that they should go for reeling the cocoons as Silk Yarn. But they were delayed due to the procedural wrangles.

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Our INITIATION…

We hired a Sericulture expert from India on our company’s role to train the farmers to produce Cocoons. He brought some 10 boxes of silk worm eggs and some more Mulberry plants from India. We then planted Mulberry in about 3 Hectares of land in all the corners inside the factory premises.

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Our own INCUBATOR… To hatch the Eggs we needed an incubator

which would cost about $10,000 to import it. As I am an Engineer and could understand

the functions of the Incubator I told my technicians to convert an old refrigerator by removing the cooling system and fitting with a heating system with a heating coil used in a water heater, with a thermostat control. For Air circulation and exhaust, we made perforations and fitted fans on either sides. For humidity requirement we just kept a pail of water inside the chamber.

That worked and we hatched the eggs and got the silk worms.

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First Silk Yarn in RWANDA.. By 2006, I located a working

reeling factory in Southern India, and bought the entire machinery and equipments and got the machines transported and commissioned it in Rwanda.

Started reeling Rwanda’s first Silk yarn by early 2007.

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Our Support toRwanda’s VISION 2020..

Since the 10,000 hectares of Mulberry cultivation in Rwanda is under the Vision 2020, we wanted the country to have capacity to absorb the entire cocoons to be produced in the country.

The only way out was to create a local consumption and therefore imported Twisting equipments and Hand looms to train the local population in those activities and to form cooperatives.

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Local Loom Manufacturing..

We further thought, better to avoid dependency on foreign machinery manufacturers, service engineers and spares.

Therefore we analyzed and found that Hand-looms could be made 90% from locally available wood. 10% of remaining metallic parts could be imported.

Engaged a professional to make engineering design of Handloom Parts and joined with Technical Schools in the country to make use of their carpentry workshops/Labs.

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Vertically Integrated Silk Industry.. With these initiatives we can create

a whole new vertically Integrated Silk Industry in Rwanda with all parts of value chain in place in the decentralized sector with cooperative units and SMEs.

Larger Private Sector players may take up Marketing, to access the Export market.

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Our Further Development.. Meanwhile, we hired another expert

for Post-Cocoon Research and Production activities.

We further experimented, using Natural and vegetable dyes and created different samples.

Local Market, we launched Silk Ties, Silk Scarves and Umusenana –the Rwandan traditional Attire for the ladies.

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Under one ROOF..

With the production of final products like Ties and scarves we have completed the vertical Integration process in Silk and have acquired the unique status of being the First - fully vertically integrated Silk Industry in the world, from farming to final product, under one roof.

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Our Brand…..

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Our motto is

“Weaving Dreams into Prosperity”

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Our Real Life

‘Weaving Dreams into Prosperity’

Our Core Business.. In our core business of Cotton based textiles

we have developed Technical Textiles to diversify and customize the client’s needs. This is necessary to survive the competition from Asia.

We have designed products suiting the specific needs of the local and regional Hospitality Industries, Hospitals and educational Institutions. We also have exported container loads of Cotton bags to clients in the US like Macys and Starbucks. We have also supplied Obama campaign materials and had repeated orders for the Obama Inauguration too. We export Lavender Bags to the UK.

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With Other New Fibers.. We are also simultaneously working on

Banana Stem and Pineapple Leaf fibers production which can be emulated in the same model as that of Silk. This can make use of the Agro waste of Banana Trees and Pineapple leaves to generate new Raw materials in the country for Textile and Handicraft applications.

We have just ordered for some Fiber Extractors, and we expect to be extracting Banana and Pineapple fibers by end of May 2009 in Rwanda and will have the trial production and develop products before the end of this year.

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Employment in RWANDA..

With these initiatives, employment creation in silk industry could be in the range of about 150,000 with 10000 Hectares of Mulberry Cultivation and corresponding creation of value chain in the country.

The Banana and Pineapple Fibers initiative can create an employment of over 100,000.

Working on to set up a Malaria Bed-Nets production- 3000 employments..

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Expected REVENUE..

The ultimate earnings could be in the range of $250 Mil Per Year – by the Textile Exports from Rwanda.

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INNOVATE

OR

DIE…!

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What This Means…

Think out of the Box, be innovative, Focus on People – all the time.

Success will follow tireless efforts. Bring focus to Private Sector on

participation with Governments to alleviate poverty and together we can do!

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Next Steps…

We propose to encourage participation of all women and men to join us to bring in new ideas and action together to create wealth and sustainable employments through innovation.

Thank you…!

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