Beyond the Flower

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In a Musanze factory, AgroPy turns Rwandan pyrethrum into finished crop- protection and veterinary products for Rwanda and regional markets.

Since the 1994 Liberation, Rwanda’s agriculture sector has steadily moved beyond the production of raw commodities toward a more ambitious goal: creating greater value from what the country grows.

Pyrethrum grows well in Rwanda’s volcanic soils. For decades, that was the end of the local story: farmers harvested the flower and exported a raw material with no value added, and Rwanda would later import pyrethrum-based products at a very high price.

Deo Agaba, the Managing Director of AgroPy

Today, AgroPy’s factory in Musanze is working to change where that chain stops.

The company buys refined pyrethrum oil from Horizon SOPYRWA, which works with farmers and processes the crop. Then AgroPy uses it as the main active ingredient in its own formulations — products designed to protect crops, animals and people, from pests.

It is the only Rwandan company adding value to pyrethrum rather than letting the refined ingredient leave the country entirely.

AgroPy’s staff in a group photo at their office in Musanze

“Rwanda should not just produce and export,” says Deo Agaba, AgroPy’s Managing Director. “We need to add value.”

It is a simple sentence, and it sits at the centre of a much larger shift: creating greater value from what the country grows. Rwanda’s Productivity still matters, but so do processing, manufacturing, quality standards, technology and access to higher-value markets. AgroPy, established in 2011 as Agropharm Africa Ltd, is one expression of that ambition.

AgroPy’s objective is to promote local value addition by transforming Rwanda’s natural resources into high-quality, value-added products that are prioritized for domestic consumption, with a significant proportion supplied to the Rwandan market before being exported.

This approach aims to strengthen domestic market demand, foster industrialization, create jobs, support sustainable economic growth, reduce reliance on imported finished products, and enhance Rwanda’s export competitiveness.

From Crop to Solution

One of AgroPy’s early milestones came in 2016, when it worked with the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) to introduce Pyrethrins 2.19% EWC, a pyrethrum- based product used against Antestia bug in coffee.

The product continues to be used by organic coffee growers.

The company has since worked with institutions including the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB), the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), NAEB, Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) and the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), among others, on product development, field trials, responses to agricultural challenges and public health through mosquito’s control and other pests.

During the Fall Armyworm outbreak in the country, AgroPy supplied pesticides as part of the emergency response. It has also worked with RAB on strategic pesticide stocks for rapid deployment in the event of Desert Locust threats and supplied PermaPy Plus in response to Rift Valley Fever outbreak among cattle.

Mr Agaba says such work shows that value addition is not only about turning one physical product into another. It is also about developing solutions around the needs of citizens.

That philosophy has pushed the company to invest in research and field trials, like exploring biological approaches such as entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs).

Taking Local Products Beyond Rwanda

The next test was whether locally formulated products could find customers outside the country. Between 2017 and 2022, AgroPy expanded into Ghana, initially supplying AgroPy 5EW for organic cocoa production. In 2026, the company also supplied Ghana COCOBOD, Ghana’s cocoa sector regulator. The company exports 20 tonnes per year and its products have also been registered in Uganda and Tanzania.

For a company whose raw material begins with a crop grown by Rwandan farmers, reaching regional and international markets represents another layer of value. It means the country is not simply selling what it grows; it is selling knowledge, formulation, quality and finished solutions.

Agropy’s factory in Musanze

Quality has become central to the company’s operations. AgroPy obtained ISO 9001:2015 certification in 2017 and now operates an Integrated Management System (IMS) incorporating a Quality Management System (QMS), an Environmental Management System (EMS), and an Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS).

It has also obtained Ecocert registration for crop-protection products, supporting its work with organic- oriented production.

Protection for the Farm, the Herd and the Home

Whatever threatens what you have built, whether pests in the coffee, ticks on the cattle or mosquitoes in the bedroom, AgroPy has a product made for it.

On the farm, AgroPy 5EW and AgroPy EWC+ are pyrethrin-based insecticides trusted by organic coffee and cocoa growers, also used in other crops including fruits and vegetables, while Agrothrin protects stored grain.

For livestock, PermaPy keeps ticks, flies, mites and lice off cattle, sheep and dogs, Inkuyo+ fights flies ,ticks and mange, and A-Dust protects poultry from mites and lice. PermaPy Plus served the national Rift Valley Fever response.

At home, Bireti Repel keeps mosquitoes and other insects away from the family, Tuuza kills flying and crawling insects such as flies, ants and cockroaches, Bireti Plus tackles stubborn bedbugs and cockroaches, and AgroPy Hand Sanitizer, made with 80% ethanol, kills infection-causing germs.

For businesses and institutions, Fenitrothion controls termites, bedbugs and cockroaches, and AgroPy 33, applied by thermal fogger, treats entire spaces. AgroPy’s teams serve banks, hotels, embassies, schools and health centres. Working with the RBC and local authorities, they have helped fight malaria through indoor residual spraying.

For customers, that means a crop that survives, a herd that stays healthy and a home that stays safe.

In northern Rwanda, the journey from crop to refined ingredient to finished solution — is already underway. And it raises a question that reaches well past pyrethrum: not only what Rwanda can produce, but how much more it can create from what it already grows.