Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives for the North, East and West (IDEA-NEW) Monthly Report—April 2014

The program's mission is to support agribusinesses at different points of each value chain to improve market access, increase processing capacity and catalyze investments into Afghanistan's agricultural sector. IDEA-NEW's activities focus on the Eastern region, specifically Nangarhar, Kunar, Laghman, Kabul, Kapisa, Panjshir and Parwan provinces. The program provides targeted support to input suppliers and food processors that operate in the grape, orchard crop and vegetable value chains. In April 2014, IDEA-NEW held pre-application conferences in Kabul and Jalalabad for potential applicants, including agriculture input suppliers and food processing companies. Twenty-four businesses attended the Kabul meeting, and 35 came to IDEA-NEW's Jalalabad offices, where they were briefed on the application process and received the request for applications. As of the end of the reporting period, 32 input suppliers and food processors had submitted a grant application, with 10 deemed suitable for matching and promotional grants and moved to the next stage in the evaluation process. Six applicants were approved for training, and the remainder were rejected as their proposals did not meet minimum eligibility criteria. In preparation for the launch of IDEA-NEW's SMS marketing pilot project, agribusiness staff surveyed 69 retailers, 38 wholesalers and 321 farmers in the target provinces to gather stakeholders' opinions on the benefits and potential sustainability obstacles facing the pilot project. IDEA-NEW also conducted a training needs assessment of 148 agribusinesses across all seven target provinces. The assessment results will be shared with the vendor(s) selected to provide accounting, marketing, food safety, hygiene and pesticide safety training. In addition to the pre-application conferences and surveys, IDEA-NEW staff visited several food processors that received support from the program in 2013. Several of them reported that they were continuing to build off the successes achieved with IDEA-NEW support on their own. For example, Masroor Food Processing Company and Gift Food Processing Company shipped 42 and 62 cartons of their products, respectively, to Finest Supermarket in Kabul to be sold under the store's 'Made in Afghanistan' product line. Both companies were introduced to Finest by IDEA-NEW. Gift Food purchased a new juice labeling machine that has the ability to pack 100 cartons per hour, which will greatly increase its production capacity. Kaliwal Oil, Soap and Cotton Seed Cake Company submitted a concept note for a grant that would assist the company in purchasing additional manufacturing equipment. The Nangarhar-based Khalil Rehan Food Processing Company opened a new office in Kabul to support its efforts to distribute its products in Kabul province. This expansion plan was developed after Khalil Rehan observed the rise in his sales after rebranding his products with IDEA-NEW support in 2013. The increase in demand led him to seek sole distributors for his goods in each province and resulted in his successfully signing a contract to supply Haji Sharif Kamawal Wholesaler with 4,000 cartons of apple and orange jam for the Kabul market. Himat Arman Non-Alcoholic Beverages Limited, a company based in Jalalabad, Nangarhar, designed a new product line after seeing the positive impact on their sales when they rebranded some of their products with IDEA-NEW's promotional grants. The company's sales increased significantly after rebranding, and they were able to expand their product line to meet the growing demand.