1. INTRODUCTION
TechnoServe (TNS) is a non-profit international development organization founded in 1968. Its mission is to help entrepreneurial men and women break the cycle of poverty by building businesses that create jobs, income, and economic opportunities for families, communities, and countries. TechnoServe Ethiopia is implementing a project named Majang Forest Livelihood Improvement project in two woredas named Godere and Mengesh of Majang zone, Gambella region. The project aims to support the sustainable development of Majang zone by increasing income of men and women from Non-timber Forest Products such as coffee, honey and spices. As one intervention area to promote Majang coffee quality attributes and marketability, the project profiles Majang coffee and promotes it among key market players including buyers.
2. RATIONALE OF THE COFFEE PROFILING AND PROMOTION WORK
Ethiopia is the largest producer and exporter of Arabica coffee in Africa, exporting on average 180,000 MT (3 million bags) of green coffee per year. Coffee is the country’s largest export and an important source of income for more than 1.2 million smallholder farmers. Concentrated in the South and West of Ethiopia, coffee production benefits from high-growing altitudes, ideal soils and climate, and indigenous Arabica varietals that yield unique cup profiles. The importance of the coffee industry to Ethiopia’s economy cannot be overstated. It plays a critical role, not only as the basis for rural livelihoods, but also as a source of scarce foreign currency.
However, Ethiopia is not maximizing its coffee earnings. TechnoServe estimates that increasing quality and farm yields would add over $700 million to Ethiopia’s annual foreign exchange earnings. Thus, Ethiopia must improve coffee yields and coffee quality from existing coffee trees (versus planting additional coffee trees) as well as improve marketing and its international reputation. Furthermore, to secure the future of its coffee production, Ethiopia must preserve its forests, which are critically important to Ethiopian coffee, as almost half of the country’s coffee production depends on forest coverage.
Gambella region is one of the potential areas for both lowland and highland coffee. Majang zone is one of Gambella’s three zones and it produces forest coffee. Yet, the quality of coffee is very low as a result of poor agronomy practices, lack of know-how in post-harvest handling by coffee farmers, coops and union and substandard processing in wet and dry mills. As a result, the coffee that comes from the zone (Godere Unwashed and Washed Coffee) usually is assessed as under grade (UG) at Bonga ECX. Further, due to the coffee quality problems and the lack of an existing profile for the coffee, Majang coffee is not well known and promoted in the market. As a result, the market for Majang coffee is undeveloped with no market information (quality requirement, price, demand etc.) for producers and their associations. Some of the specific problems of Majang zone coffee market include:
a) Low quality coffee due to lack of know-how in post-harvest handling by farmers, coops and union
b) Substandard processing by wet and dry mills
c) Lack of profile for Majang coffee
d) lack of promotion of Majang coffee quality attributes
e) Lack of market linkage
To solve the quality problem, the project is building the capacity of those involved in coffee value chain (e.g. farmers, union and cooperatives, wet and dry mills and zonal and woreda agriculture office coffee experts.) In addition, the project aims to profile Majang zone coffee quality attributes and promote it in the market, which is also the aim of the consultancy assignment.
3. OBJECTIVES OF THE COFFEE PROFILING AND PROMOTION
The overall purpose of the coffee profiling and promotion is to identify the quality attributes of Majang coffee and promote it in the market, thereby increasing its marketability. At the end of the coffee profiling and promotion, the beneficiaries will specifically:
· Benefit from promotion of their coffee through profiling its specific attributes
· Market linkages created for Majang Farmers’ Cooperatives Union coffee in the international market
4. SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
TechnoServe seeks to contract Ethiopia- based consulting firm legally registered in Ethiopia with extensive practical experience in the Ethiopian coffee sector, particularly related to coffee quality and coffee marketing. The scope of the work broadly includes:
· Develop detailed proposal on sampling procedure, methodology and procedures to conduct coffee profiling
· Profile Majang coffee for the 2017/18 season and for the remaining coffee from 2016/17 production season
· Write up a detailed profile report on Majang coffee
· Promote Majang coffee among international buyers
5. DELIVERABLES OF THE ASSIGNMENT
i. Participate in the consultancy work related meetings organized by TNS during the contract period
ii. Develop a workable action plan to complete all the assignment by December 31st, 2018
iii. Submit exhaustive outline of the profiling report content in person to TNS team and present to Majang Forest Livelihood Improvement project team at TNS office
iv. Incorporate feedback from the meeting and submit the final outline to TNS
v. Submit draft proposal on the design, sampling procedure and analysis to conduct the profiling assignment
vi. Incorporate feedback and clarify questions from TNS
vii. Submit final proposal for coffee profiling
viii. Undergo sampling of coffee and conduct green and sensory analysis
ix. Develop a profile of Majang coffee and submit report of the assessment to TNS
x. Submit draft Majang coffee profiling report
xi. Incorporate any feedback and comments to the coffee profiling report and submit the final version both in a hard and soft copy
xii. Promote Majang coffee profile among international buyers e.g. by using website or other means of promotion
6. PRELIMINARY CONTENT OF THE COFFEE PROFILING
The profiling of Majang coffee attributes is expected to cover but not limited to the following topics:
Content of coffee profiling report
Green and Sensory Analysis
i. Description
ii. Executive summary of the action
iii. Objective of the study
iv. Activities, methodology and procedures
a. Sample collection
b. Provision of a quality baseline for physical and sensory analysis
i. Green analysis
ii. Sensory analysis/cupping
iii. Additional notes/remarks
v. Result and discussion
a. Green analysis
b. Sensory analysis
c. Possible causes
vi. Feedback and recommendations
vii. Challenges
7. COFFEE PROFILING AND PROMOTION APPROACH
In order to carry-out coffee profiling, the consultant needs to show the sampling procedure and analysis methodology and procedures. The equipment and tools to be used for profiling have to be clearly indicated in materials required section. The profiling method should consider the differences in coffee profile from area to area and among cooperatives.
Furthermore, following up on coffee quality profiling, promotion of Majang coffee among international buyers using different promotion mechanisms should be done in order to link the cooperatives and union with international coffee buyers.
8.NUMBER OF SAMPLES FOR COFFEE QUALITY PROFILING
The number of the samples that should be collected for coffee profiling should be minimum 72. The coffee samples should be collected both from lowland and highland areas. In addition, the sample should be collected from two woredas of Majang zone named Godere and Mengeshi. There is one union and 16 cooperatives in the area and the sample might have to consider the existing differences of the coops and union.
9. LEVEL OF EFFORT AND DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The estimated start and completion date of the contract is from December 1st, 2017 to December 1st, 2018. The maximum estimated levels of effort required to accomplish the assignment is a maximum of 50 person days. The applicants are required to provide detail plan on proposed level of efforts.
10. PROPOSED COFFEE PROFILING AND PROMOTION DATES
The tentative schedule for coffee profiling and promotion assignment is from December 1st, 2017 to December 1st, 2018. The total number of 50 working days will distributed within this time period (at least a year).
Activities | Place | Dates | No. of samples | Total # of days estimated for the assignment |
Majang coffee profiling and promotion | Majang zone, Gambella Region | December 1st , 2017 – December 1st, 2018 | 72 | 50 |
11. REPORTING
All deliverables shall be submitted as per the time schedule to be decided between TNS and consultant.
12. PAYMENT MODALITY
The payments will be done in three installments based on consultancy firm proposed timeline and installment rate ones agreed up on by TNS.
13. EVALUATION CRITERIA AND PROCESS
The applications will be evaluated by TNS based on the parameters below and as needed, shortlisted candidates will be requested to participate in an interview as part of the competition for the award. Below are the criteria and weight that will be used in assessing the proposals.
Criteria | Weight |
1. Technical Assessment |
|
1.1. Qualifications, competence and experiences of the key staff related to the assignment | 30 |
1.2. Adequacy of understanding the terms and responding to the terms of references |
10 |
1.3. Methodology and the proposed work plan in responding to the Terms of Reference | 20 |
1.4. English Language | 10 |
2. Financial Proposal | 30 |
Total | 100 |
The Candidate: TNS is looking for individual consultants or firms who fulfill the requirements below.
· BA/MA in Coffee Quality, Plant Science, Post-Harvest Management, Agronomy, Agribusiness and Value Chain Management or very closely related field of study with specialization in coffee areas
· Minimum of 7 years for MA and 9 years for BA in direct coffee profiling, quality testing and marketing
· Proven record of accomplishment of similar assignments and demonstrated experience in similar projects through concrete project examples.
· Ability to structure and manage complex tasks; attention to detail while at the same time, an ability to identify picture conclusions
· Excellent analytical skills, able to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data
· Analyze, interpret and summarize green and sensory data of coffee and quality parameters for coffee
· Strong understanding of Ethiopian coffee sector
· Exposure and experience working with the coffee producing cooperatives and unions as well as wet and dry mills in Ethiopia or elsewhere is a plus
· Strong communication skills
· Proven sampling, data collection and organization and survey supervision skill
· Report writing skill and fluency in English Language