Untitled Document

The project aims to provide support to small growers in Egypt so that they can comply with GLOBALG.A.P. and FAIRTRADE standards for small producers. The project's grant goal is to increase trust in the fresh produce of Egyptian small growers, improve local sales and enable export of Egyptian small growers' fresh produce, and create jobs in the Egyptian fresh produce market. The project's geographical scope initially focused on Beheira and Mersa Matrouh Governorates, with plans to extend activities to Upper Egypt in Year 2. Blue Moon Ltd. signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with several cooperatives and marketing associations, including the West Nubaria Rural Development Project, Teba Fresh Produce Marketing Cooperative, Intilaq Fresh Produce Marketing Cooperative, and five agriculture cooperatives. These cooperatives have a total of 4,006 small growers, with land ownership ranging from 2 to 5 feddans per grower. The project's product scope includes various crops, such as apricots, artichokes, beans, capsicum, clementine, grapes, lemon, mandarin, melon, olives, oranges, peaches, peas, potato, strawberry, sweet potato, tomato, and watermelon. The project's implementation focused on several key areas, including infrastructure development, farmer training programs, and market linkage facilitation. The project's accomplishments are reflected in several performance indicators, including the number of compliance certificates, samples that comply with legal residue levels, cooperatives that can conduct forward/backward traceability tests, website hits that are transferred to actual participation, and jobs created through project activities. The project also achieved significant milestones in capacity building efforts, including the training of farmers, cooperatives, and other stakeholders in areas such as strategic planning, marketing, GPS training, Fairtrade training, GlobalGAP IFA V.4 training, good practice, first aid, and safe use of pesticides. The project's capacity building efforts have resulted in the training of over 2,400 participants, with a significant number of female participants. The project's achievements and challenges are reflected in several tables, which illustrate the cumulative achievements and challenges so far, including the identification of infrastructure gaps, development and implementation of remedial action plans, and coordination with CEOSS and the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. The project's progress has been significant, with several key achievements, including the completion of infrastructure gap identification and remedial action plans, the training of farmers and cooperatives, and the creation of jobs in the Egyptian fresh produce market. However, the project has also faced several challenges, including organizational changes in CEOSS and the need to replicate the project's success story in Upper Egypt.