The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

the Foreign Service journal | may 2016 61 Although Tunisian waters produced one of the favorite French-preferred species of fish—popularly called the “loup”— the Tunisian-caught fish were not selling well in Europe. We suspected the root cause was packaging, but we also knew that cold storage issues were a problem. We contacted the Interna- tional Association of Refrigerated Warehouses, which sent an expert. He identified three problems: (1) the refrigeration systems the producers used were outdated and not dependable; (2) there was no capability to provide the individually quick-frozen fish popular in Europe; and (3) packaging was of generally poor quality. Another Seattle-based fisheries association sent a representative to work on the packaging and individually quick-frozen issues; while the refrigerated warehouses expert advised new, more efficient and less costly methods to improve the performance of the old refrigeration systems. That expert also discussed the problems milk produc- ers had maintaining milk freshness. Again, outdated refrigeration systems were at fault, and the consultant sug- gested the same approach as prescribed for the fishermen. This consultant pointed us to the Food Processing Machin- ery and Supplies Association, which sent out a representative who was quickly able to help solve the problems, including introducing the production of long-life milk requiring no refrigeration. He also suggested that the Tunisian producers look into cheese production to utilize their excess milk product. Note that for all the above activities we arranged practi- cal training courses—especially in European import-export protocols and regulations—for the participating producers, as needed. The Results. The tomato paste producers got new labels on their cans and doubled production and marketing in the next year. The olive oil producers had similar results. The fishermen and processors tripled their export of “loup” to France in the first year, and the milk producers took the association’s advice and installed new, modern refrigeration equipment that solved their major problem with freshness and marketing timing and doubled their deliveries. They also started a new long-life milk production program. What did all this cost? We had $1.5 million to start. After operating for a year—the time limit on our budget—we had spent only a third of the funds: about $200,000 for air travel and per diem for the consultants, and about $300,000 for train- ing courses. Notably, many of the trade associations paid the airfare and per diem for their professionals. Case Study 2: Dry Bean Seed Production in Tanzania under Forward Contracting with Private European Agribusiness The Setting. Soon after my arrival as agriculture and resource development officer in USAID’s northern Tanzania office in the Arusha region, I learned that a representative of the Royal Dutch Seed Company had recently canvassed the region to assess the potential for growing dry bean seed, and I had the opportunity to observe the development of that project. The Case. The Royal Dutch Seed Company had been expe- riencing severe problems with disease vectors at its other sites, in Asia, and was searching for a “disease- free” site. Earlier visits to the Arusha region had found no bean diseases present, and the company decided to invest its own funds to grow disease-free seed. A seed agronomist arrived in the region and, working with the support of the Aru- sha regional director, was quickly able to identify the “master farmers” in the growing areas that interested him. The Dutch expert set up and developed a training syllabus that detailed the parameters and restrictions for growing the seed locally. In addition, the expert hired and began training a local Indian- Tanzanian businessman in processing, selecting and bagging the seed. The program grew like wildfire. Soon, the local farmer count had grown to more than 50, two Dutch agronomists were onsite in Arusha supervising the activities, and eight master farmers were fully engaged. The Indian-Tanzanian entrepreneur set up a unique operation using a conveyor belt system to pass the seed in front of female pickers. The Results. More than 60 local farmers and 50 women workers were eventually hired and paid directly by a foreign agribusiness. All these farmers were well-taught in approved agronomic practices that would stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, the Dutch company reported In any project, we need to find the master farmers and involve them directly in developing the technical approach to be adopted for cropping activities.