Rwanda has one of the fast growing economies of the world and as more and more Rwandans leave poverty and enter the middle class, their demand for protein, especially meat, growth even faster. The same demand was seen over a century ago when Europe grew itself out of poverty and replicated again in Asia over the last few decades.
This is the trend that led Herve Tuyishime to start Paniel Meat Processing in 2016, and the company has grown more than ten-fold since then.
Finding a sufficient supply of commercial-grade animals quickly became an issue in meeting demand, and for that Herve created Livestock Bank, a distributed system of over 1,000 farmers raising pigs, goats, sheep, and chickens.
Along the way PMP found a similar growing demand across the border in Congo, and pre-pandemic Herve was invited to China as an Alibaba Fellow with a goal of filling the insatiable demand for pork in China.
But in all this growth Herve has never lost sight of feeding more protein to his fellow Rwandans. For that PMP launched Akaboga, a pre-packaged meal of meat and vegetables, at a price affordable to nearly all Rwandans.
More on that, the cold chain, and the background of Livestock Bank in How We Made It In Africa.
