Monthly Report Template for COMPETE Grantees

The report outlines the activities undertaken by the organization in line with its grant agreement. To link input suppliers with producers and producers with buyers, Kilicafe signed an open contract for one container of conventional coffee with Whole Foods Allegro, with a differential of NYC+060. Additionally, Kilicafe is in the process of signing an open contract with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) for four containers of Fair Trade coffee. The organization is also preparing for its annual supply chain event, Let's Talk Coffee, which aims to bring stakeholders together from across the coffee supply chain to share ideas and challenges faced at each level. Five members of Kilicafe leadership will attend the event from 5th-6th September and will have an opportunity to enter into one-on-one discussions with lenders, roasters, and certifiers. The organization conducted trainings on quality management, wet mill management, RFID/cell phone use, and RITS system workshops for dry mill managers and cuppers. All RITS washing stations are now open for operations, and quality management training workshops continue for producers at each washing station to enable them to improve their product and market it for higher premium sales. A total of 110 producers from across four washing stations received direct training in harvest and post-harvest practices, including hands-on training in correct picking and sorting practices and the basics of quality in the cup. Additionally, 117 producers received the farmer training manuals in Kiswahili. The collection, bulking, cleaning, sorting, drying, and storage of RITS tracked coffee at the dry mill were also reported. In the month of August, all ten RITS washing stations together tracked a total of 140,665 Kg of cherry, bringing the grand total from the beginning of the 2011 harvest to 238,427 Kg of cherry tracked using RITS. Furthermore, by the end of August, over $35,000 in farmer payments have been made since the beginning of the season. The RITS IT support team based out of Portland added the ability to generate QR codes to Kilicafe's system, which can contain more information than RFID tags and are dramatically cheaper to generate and scan. The organization also reported on the conduct of market/roasters' satisfaction assessment and post-harvest survey. The market/roasters' satisfaction assessment is due to commence later in the quarter, after roasters visit the RITS washing stations during Let's Talk Coffee Africa 2011. The post-harvest survey is due to commence at the end of this quarter and into the beginning of the final quarter, when the 2011 coffee production slows and finally comes to an end in December. In addition to the above activities, Sustainable Harvest staff were grateful for the opportunity to receive USAID in Kilimanjaro region and to visit Kishisha to learn more about the successes and challenges of the RITS Program. Internet connectivity remains unstable, but communication with Vodacom, the main internet provider for the RITS groups, is underway, and Boss Farijallah will be traveling to the Dar Es Salaam headquarters next month to meet with the Director and discuss moving forward with 3G connectivity in the field.