Country Profile

Rwanda

 
 

Region: Africa

Population: 13,954,471

Percent of population in urban areas: 17.2

Source: Population figures from the United Nations Population Division.

 
 

Grain Production, Imports, Exports, and Availability

  Domestic production Grain imports Grain exports Flour imports Flour exports Available in food supply
Wheat 14,000 246,000 110,000 12,182 61,181 18
Maize 459,000 148,000 56,000 840 47,381 71
Rice 75,249 251,686 94,623 39

All figures (except the amount available in food supply for consumption) are expressed in metric tons. Amount of flour or rice available in food supply is expressed in grams/person/day. 

Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. For details, see our “How We Get Our Data” page.

 

Legislation, Milling Industry, and Fortification

  Legislation Number of industrial mills (>20 metric tons/day) % Flour/rice produced in industrial mills % Industrially milled flour/rice that is fortified
Wheat Mandatory 4 60 10
Maize None 3 35 40
Rice Mandatory 2 74 0

Industrial wheat and maize flour mill: capacity to mill more than 20 metric tons/day

Industrial rice mill: capacity to mill at least 5 metric tons/hour of paddy rice

Source: FFI database.

  • Note: Estimates may differ from Global Fortification Data Exchange estimates as FFI assumes imported flour/rice is industrially milled. FFI includes imported flour/rice into the total percentage of flour/rice produced in industrial mills and percentage of industrially milled flour/rice that is fortified.

 

Nutrients Added Through Fortification

  Minerals B Vitamins Vitamin A Vitamin D Vitamin E
  Calcium Iron Type of iron Selenium Zinc B6 B12 Folic acid Niacin Riboflavin Thiamin
Wheat
Maize
Rice

All nutrient amounts are expressed in parts per million.

Source: FFI database.

 

Prevalence of Neural Tube Defects, Anemia, and Inadequate Zinc Intake

Neural tube defects per 10,000 births1 % Anemia in non-pregnant women of reproductive age2 % Anemia in pre-school children3 % Population at risk of inadequate zinc intake4
13 17 38 34.9

[1] Source: Hannah Blencowe, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Personal communication. United Kingdom. 2015.

  • Note: This figure may not include pregnancy loss or terminations of pregnancies due to prenatal diagnosis of a neural tube defect. With all folic acid interventions in place, the birth prevalence of neural tube defects would be about 6 per 10,000.

[2] Source: World Health Organization. The global prevalence of anemia in 2011. Switzerland. 2015.

  • Note: Anemia can be caused by many things. Fortifying flour and rice can reduce the risk of anemia caused by nutritional deficiencies. The classification of anemia as a public health problem, according to the World Health Organization is:

    • ≤4.9% No public health problem

    • 5.0-19.9% Mild public health problem

    • 20.0-39.9% Moderate public health problem

    • ≥40.0% Severe public health problem

[3] Source: World Health Organization. The global prevalence of anemia in 2011. Switzerland. 2015.

  • Note: Preschool children are usually defined as ages 6-59 months.

[4] Source: Wessells KR, Brown KH. Estimating the global prevalence of zinc deficiency: results based on zinc availability in national food supplies and the prevalence of stunting. United States of America. 2012.