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, significant progress was made in November. Allegro Coffee Company received and approved the Kilicafe pre-shipment sample for one container of conventional coffee, and the coffees were delivered to the port ready for shipment. Additionally, GMCR contracted three containers of Kilicafe and sent a pre-shipment sample, which Sustainable Harvest staff are awaiting approval on. Furthermore, an important roaster in the UK was sent a pre-shipment sample, and Sustainable Harvest staff are awaiting approval on this sample as well. Training activities were also conducted in November. Boss Farijallah traveled to Mbinga to conduct quality control follow-ups at the RITS washing stations and to visit the dry mill to review operations. A focus group discussion session was held at the Sustainable Harvest office, attended by twelve RITS users, and an hour was dedicated to troubleshooting RITS. Concerns related to the QR code system for tagging lots and receipts for payment and delivery were addressed. The collection, bulking, cleaning, sorting, drying, and storage of RITS-tracked coffee at the dry mill were also monitored in November. The washing stations in the South of Tanzania, Kihuka, Mahenge, and Umoja Ilela, closed for operations, and volumes collected in the North are decreasing as the harvest comes to a close. All ten RITS washing stations together tracked a total of 57,785 kg of cherry, bringing the grand total from the beginning of the 2011 harvest to 629,738 kg of cherry tracked using RITS, amounting to nearly 5 containers of green coffee. By the end of November, over $100,000 in farmer payments had been transacted since the beginning of the season. Market/roasters' satisfaction assessment was also conducted in November. Sustainable Harvest staff trained Christy Thorns, Allegro's coffee buyer, to scan the QR code attached to her pre-shipment sample and access information about the RITS groups that contributed to the container that the sample represents. Christy was able to view the volumes each individual producer contributed, an average of how long the coffee remained at each processing stage, and quality assessments at origin. Christy's response was extremely encouraging, and she has shared this information broadly with her team before sending Allegro's final feedback. The focus in November was on monitoring and evaluating the RITS Program for 2011. Ezra Spier, who has played a large role in developing and maintaining RITS for the headquarters in Portland, traveled to Tanzania to meet with Kilicafe leadership and the RITS groups in the North. USAID/COMPETE will receive Ezra's Trip Report with the November reconciliation and a more thorough report of the findings will follow.