Food and Agribusiness Consulting Experts

Food Enterprise Solutions (FES) Seeks Consulting Experts with Private Sector Experience in Agribusiness, Supply & Cold Chain Logistics, and Food Safety 

NOTE: This is a second call for experts, following one that FES posted in October 2020. If you already provided your resume for the first call, you do not need to re-submit your qualifications. FES has your information on file and will consider your candidacy for consulting opportunities referenced here.  

Overview 

Food Enterprise Solutions (FES) is working in Nepal to explore the extent of the food safety situation and to study and determine what drives food systems actors to uptake food safety practices and technologies and abide by food safety regulations, in order to reduce the risk of food contamination in perishable foods. Under Feed the Future’s USAID Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) project, we focus on the role of private sector businesses in driving positive improvements in aggregating, storing, processing, transporting, and retailing foods for local urban and rural markets in Nepal. If you have relevant experience in the private sector either as an entrepreneur, business owner or manager, or consulting expert, we would like to hear from you.  

Background 

As agricultural products leave the farm, they pass through the hands of numerous actors in the overall food system: village aggregators, traders, processors, transporters, storage operators, warehouse managers, retailers, and prepared food providers such as kiosks, restaurants, fast-food chains, hotels, hospitals, and schools. Because of the many actors involved in the handling of food, these systems present an inherent risk of contamination that contributes to pre-consumer losses and risk of transmitting foodborne pathogens.  

Some foods are sold closer to the point of production in village markets, whereas some move through more handlers via a market shed serving small towns and urban centers. Regardless of the specific supply chain they travel along, foods are handled by micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, or Growing Food Businesses (GFBs), and the web of support businesses like transport companies, warehouses, postharvest sheds, etc. that must manage the challenges of food safety in order to deliver safe, nutritious, and healthy foods to the market. These GFBs are the target stakeholder group for the Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) project.  

In many markets, GFBs do not have strong incentives to upgrade operations and invest in food safety:  consumers generally lack the purchasing power to make more discerning choices in the marketplace; and the public sector lacks the systems for monitoring and enforcing safe food-handling practices. Yet, with businesses playing a critical role in the food system, it is important to understand their challenges, identify constraints, and find effective approaches they can use to build food safety into their operations. Doing so – particularly when aligned with activities to improve consumer awareness and to strengthen public sector policies and regulations – will help promote a culture of food safety and strengthen food systems.  

Purpose 

Our approach to addressing these challenges begins with an assessment of factors that impede GFB adoption of food safety practices and technologies, what FES calls the Food Safety Situational Analysis (FSSA). These factors can include lack of infrastructure such as energy or roads, unreliable supply chain logistics, uncertain regulatory and enforcement framework, poor access to food testing services, lack of information, etc. The results of the FSSA are utilized in designing capacity building strategies and incentives for accelerating adoption of food safety practices among GFBs across the supply chains. This design process is done in consultation and collaboration with supply-chain actors to identify workable solutions that could include training, technology adoption, technical assistance, financing, use of IT, etc.  

To find out more about FES, please visit our website at https://www.foodsolutions.global.