China is now Rwanda’s biggest export market – now comes the hard part

In the first quarter of 2026, China became the leading destination for Rwandan exports, accounting for 26% of the total, compared with less than 5% just one year earlier.

A spectacular shift, driven by the removal of Chinese tariffs on almost all Rwandan products. But on the ground, access to this market of 1.4 billion consumers depends less on tariffs than on meeting sanitary standards.

Report by Aurore Bayoud.