Terms of Reference for Consultancy on Coffee and Honey Value Chain Development and Design of Social Enterprise Marketing Model

Terms of Reference for Consultancy on Coffee and Honey Value Chain Development and Design of Social Enterprise Marketing Model

1. Background and rationale

ASIA has been working in Naukunda Rural Municipality (Rasuwa District) since 2015, promoting livelihood and agroforestry projects with a strong focus on sustainability and community empowerment. In particular, ASIA has supported coffee cultivation and beekeeping, creating integrated agroforestry systems that combine medium to long-term productions (coffee) with faster-return activities (honey), establishing complementary income sources for smallholder farmers.

Despite technical improvements and increased production, beekeepers and coffee farmers still face significant challenges in accessing fair markets and obtaining equitable prices. Both value chains remain weak:

• Coffee farmers in Naukunda mostly sell raw cherries to intermediaries, who capture a large share of the added value;
• Honey is sold in raw form, with limited processing, filtration, packaging or branding.

In both cases, the lack of processing infrastructure, quality standards, traceability and certifications limits access to high-value markets in Nepal (and potentially abroad). ASIA currently plays the role of project facilitator and technical supporter, but does not yet have a viable, structured way to act as a direct or semi-direct intermediary between producers and markets.

ASIA now intends to move towards a small but concrete social enterprise pilot that:

• Improves farm-gate prices and income stability for Naukunda producers; and
• Generates a reasonable surplus that can be transparently reinvested into services for producers and community initiatives.

This consultancy will design that pilot.

2. Objective of the consultancy

The overall objective is to design an implementable 18-month social enterprise pilot model for coffee and honey originating from Naukunda, connecting producers to selected markets (primarily Kathmandu) through a simple, realistic and financially viable structure.

More specifically, the consultancy will:

1. Produce a practical, up-to-date snapshot of the coffee and honey value chains linking Naukunda to Kathmandu (key actors, volumes, prices, margins, constraints and opportunities).
2. Design and recommend a feasible social enterprise model (legal and operational setup) that allows ASIA (or an ASIA-backed vehicle) to act as a fair and ethical intermediary with clear revenue-sharing with producers.
3. Develop a financial model and business plan for at least one concrete pilot business line (coffee and honey), targeting specific channels and buyers.
4. Produce a step by step 18 month pilot blueprint that ASIA can start implementing within a year.

Coffee is considered the primary value chain for this assignment. Honey may be treated with a lighter level of detail if trade-offs in time and data availability arise; in such cases priority should be given to a robust coffee model.

The design must be realistic given ASIA’s current staff capacity in Nepal; recommendations that assume the creation of large new units or complex external structures without clear funding are not desirable.

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Application Procedure

Interested candidates are invited to submit the following:

1. Curriculum Vitae (maximum 4 pages) and a brief cover letter explaining their interest and suitability for this assignment.

2. A Technical Note (maximum 3 pages) responding to the Application Assignment below.

3. A Financial Proposal, indicating:

• Proposed daily rate (NPR/day, inclusive of all applicable taxes);
• Proposed number of working days;
• Total amount, which must not exceed the budget ceiling indicated above.

Application Assignment (maximum 3 pages)

Please outline how you would approach this consultancy. At a minimum, your note should cover:

a) Methodology

• How you would structure the value chain analysis for coffee and honey in Naukunda and Kathmandu;
• What primary data you would collect (from whom, how) and what secondary sources you would use.

b) Social enterprise model options

• Briefly present two possible organisational models (for example, cooperative, producer company, NGO-owned enterprise, consortium, etc.) and, in 4–5 bullet points each, explain their main advantages and risks in the Naukunda context.

c) Financial modelling approach

• Explain how you would build the cost–revenue model (which cost items you would include, how you would treat margins and scenarios);
• Indicate what minimum information/data you would need from ASIA and from producers to make the model realistic.

d) Pilot proposal

• In around 10–15 lines, describe what a 1-year pilot for honey and/or coffee would look like (approximate volumes, target channels, key roles).

The purpose of this assignment is not to provide full answers, but to help ASIA understand how you think and how you would structure the work.

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:

• Quality of the application assignment and proposed methodology – 50%
• Relevant experience and qualifications (CV) – 30%
• Financial proposal (rate and realism of level of effort) – 20%

Only shortlisted candidates may be invited for an online or in-person interview, where they may be requested to briefly present or walk through a previous financial or business model they have developed.

Submission of applications

Applications should be submitted no later than 17 December 2025, 17:00 NPT, to:

f.barbini@asia-ngo.org

CC: n.gurung@asia-ngo.org

with the subject line: “Application – Coffee and honey social enterprise consultancy – [Name]”.

Only complete applications received within the deadline will be considered