Rwanda to launch silk initiative
29/04/2009
Rwanda's only textile producer, L'Usine Textile du Rwanda (Utexrwa), has announced a plan to increase the country's silk production by 75% by devoting an extra 500 hectares to mulberry trees.
At the moment, the trees grow on three different sites around the capital, Kigali, on a total area of around 285 hectares. The company's managing director, Raj Rajendran, said the current situation made it very difficult for Utexrwa to expand its production of the fibre.
He said an extra 500 hectares of mulberry trees would produce 750 tonnes of cocoons and 125 tonnes of yarn, on average per year. His estimate is that this quantity of yarn could produce 875,000 metres of finished silk fabric.
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