Our Story

Derived from Rwanda’s nickname: Land of a Thousand Hills, Ikonyk Hills ltd is a female led agro-business from Rwanda.

The company was started by Deodata Mukazayire, who has over 14 years of experience working with  women-led farming cooperatives and small business owners in Africa. 

When Deodata began to travel as a professional she realized how much people valued avocados outside of her native Rwanda. A seed was planted and Deodata saw an opportunity to introduce Rwanda’s green gold to the world, but in a manner which supported the nation’s development and women farmers – a cause that remains close to her heart.

The Ikonyk Hills Story

Rob Friedman is the Deputy Managing Director at Ikonyk Hills Ltd. He is an International Development and Disaster Response professional with over 13 years of experience, which also includes

support to agriculture and small business startups in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Fabrice Ntanenge is a Business Advisor at Ikonyk Hills Ltd. He is a Masters of Business Studies  graduate with extensive experience working with com-munities of farmers in his native Rwanda. He also specializes in International Trade .

Our Farm

Ikonyk  Hills’ delicious avocados come from over 1,600 trees spread over six  hectares of rich, volcanic soil, which gives Rwandan avocados its distinct flavor.  The farm sits in Rwanda’s Southern Province, known for perfect year-round  growing  conditions for avocados and is fertilized by organic compost combined with manure from animals on the farm

Due to the owners’ humanitarian roots, the farm employs almost exclusively vulnerable and single head of household women from the local area and recently graduated students to provide job experience.. Our farm also works other smallholder farmers to ensure sufficient quantities for export.

Our Community

Ikonyk Hills regularly supports the  children of employees and farm  workers with books, uniforms, and  tuition fees to promote education. Thirteen students have received benefits so far. Ikonyk Hills also supports a group savings program with our local women workers.

Ikonyk Hills is also active in welcoming new graduates in agricultural studies from Rwandan institutions gain valuable work experience through a placement program funded by Trademark Africa Inc.

In coordination with CARE and USAID’s Farmer to Farmer Program Ikonyk Hills hosted a trainingworkshop with a goal of establishing best practices in avocado farming to small-scale farmers from the local area. A total of 40 farmers, of which 28 were women, participated in the training,  where they learned about various aspects of  organic avocado farming, such as methods  to improve irrigation and making organic compost  from readily available resources like kitchen scraps and livestock manure.

Please let us know if highlighting the grassroots community initiatives behind Ikonyk Hills is something your company is interested in and we can work to provide materials to highlight our activities that also support your community strengthening priorities.