News items

ProFound launches the Healthy Green Choice project in Kenya

2018-06-25T12:00:23+00:00December 19th, 2017|

Consumer demand for safe fruits and vegetables in Kenya is continuously growing. However, domestic suppliers cannot keep up with this demand. This is why Healthy Green Choice (HGC) aims to develop a new market and new channels for safe food in Kenya, promoting responsible products and farmers. We have food safety and biodiversity at our core, offering economic incentives for producers to go the extra mile. Next to compliance with food safety requirements (such as HACCP, GACP and GlobalGAP), Healthy Green Choice will look into innovations across the value chain such as soil testing, traceability and rural financing. Partners onboard [Read more]

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Successful agricultural clusters in Eastern Indonesia for the World Bank

2019-04-17T09:49:15+00:00November 24th, 2017|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

ProFound developed strategies for innovative clusters of economic activity with key Eastern Indonesian agricultural products. In this project for the World Bank we worked together with our Indonesian partner Setara Foundation and several experts from Gadjah Mada University. The team identified three main agricultural product clusters and cluster locations: Chili, onions and garlic on East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Fish on Maluku and Papua Coconut on North Sulawesi During field work in Indonesia, local and international experts identified value-adding and logistical strategies. Through product-market matching opportunities, the teams determined: Successful organisation and coordination between stakeholders How to [Read more]

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Pakistan spices and guar gum at FI Global

2017-11-20T16:08:30+00:00November 20th, 2017|Tags: , , , , |

Are you going to Food Ingredients Global trade fair in Frankfurt from 28-30 November? Come by the Import Promotion Desk (IPD) stand: 11.0C93. Here, two Pakistani companies from CBI’s Natural Ingredients programme will present their products to international buyers. Perfect Food Industries has been producing dehydrated vegetables since 1996. In Frankfurt, they will present various spice products, such as turmeric, red chillies and spice mixtures.   United Gums Industry produces and exports various guar gum products. At FI Global, they will present guar gum powder, splits and meal. Want to meet these companies? E-mail Bert-Jan Ottens to set up an appointment at [Read more]

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The business case for BioTrade markets

2018-06-26T12:34:59+00:00October 31st, 2017|Tags: , , , , , |

ProFound’s consultants  Bert-Jan Ottens and Sacha Handgraaf supported a Helvetas training on sustainable certification schemes in the context of the Regional BioTrade Project Southeast Asia with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation. The Helvetas country teams came together in Bangkok to discuss certification trajectories for the tea, spices and thanaka value chains. This will help the teams to design strong business cases for BioTrade with business support and private sector actors in Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. During the two day-training the teams learned more about: Food safety and sustainability certifications relevant for the international market How to make the link between the BioTrade principles [Read more]

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ProFound supports project formulation for Colombia+Competitiva

2018-06-26T12:39:27+00:00September 26th, 2017|Tags: , , , |

As part of the SECO-funded Colombia+Competitiva programme, ProFound’s Gustavo Ferro was invited by Swisscontact to support Colombian applicants to formulate proposals for cocoa and natural ingredients projects. An expert panel will assess these proposals and choose projects that will be co-funded by the programme. Gustavo travelled to five locations in Colombia, and discussed extensively with project partners. With the organisations, he addressed broad subjects on market developments, access requirements, segmentation and, most importantly, how to translate the problems therein into practical interventions. Gustavo answered questions, shared experiences and assisted the applicants in structuring their thinking into a market systems approach. The Colombia+Competitiva [Read more]

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Training Tunisian producers – How to access the European cosmetics market?

2017-09-22T11:26:52+00:00September 22nd, 2017|Tags: , , |

On behalf of the German Import Promotion Desk (IPD), ProFound’s consultant Robbie Hogervorst provided a two-day training in Tunisia on the European cosmetics sector. During the first day, Robbie brought a group of business support organisations up to speed on European market dynamics and requirements for cosmetic products and ingredients. Based on these insights, the participants developed a storyline for Tunisian cosmetic products on the European market, and translated this into ideas and actions for future trade fair participations.      On the second day, more than 80 participants from the private sector learned about cosmetic market trends and market [Read more]

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Market Orientation @Vitafoods Asia in Singapore on BioTrade marketing

2017-09-21T08:00:18+00:00September 21st, 2017|Tags: , , , , , |

Within the scope of our work on the Regional BioTrade Project Southeast Asia with Helvetas, our senior consultant Robbie Hogervorst supported a Helvetas training mission in Singapore. During the training, selected companies gained insight into their potential to export BioTrade products; learning about buyer and market requirements, BioTrade market trends, and possible trade channels. The companies also learned how to translate their new insights into their marketing plan: How to develop a suitable product, how to promote it, how to price it? This is part of our activities in Business Planning (see our solutions page for more information). During the [Read more]

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Pukka Herbs and ProFound ready to pilot NI-CheckApp

2018-02-07T11:14:32+00:00September 12th, 2017|Tags: , , , , , , |

Pukka Herbs and ProFound are ready to pilot our Natural Ingredients (NI) CheckApp for wild ingredients in India. We will use this tool to help Pukka Herbs establish clear, agreeable sustainability best practices and minimum guidelines with their suppliers. “One of the challenges faced by some of our suppliers is that we require both organic and FairWild certification; this currently requires two separate audits and two sets of documents, making it a time-consuming and costly undertaking. It is exciting to see that ProFound has created a tool that harmonises and simplifies some of the key certifications in our supply chain.” [Read more]

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ProFound commits to demand driven models to improve food safety in Kenya

2017-09-05T16:02:56+00:00September 5th, 2017|Tags: , , , , , |

Consumer demand for safe fruits and vegetables in Kenya is continuously growing. However, supplies of safe food for the domestic market fall way short of this demand. Smallholder producers in Kenya account for around 75% of the total agricultural production, including fresh fruits and vegetables. The vast majority of these smallholder producers are not producing in compliance with minimum food safety requirements, due to capacity gaps and disincentives to comply. The majority of supply is still highly informal and non-transparent, lacking traceability and food safety requirements. Finding opportunities to market safe food in Kenya In July, ProFound’s director Bert-Jan Ottens [Read more]

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CBI and ProFound awarded for Natural Ingredients work in Pakistan – preparing companies for multiple certifications

2020-03-04T09:47:29+00:00August 25th, 2017|Tags: , , , , , , |

ProFound executive director Bert-Jan Ottens and IN2NI colleague Michael Schwegler just returned from a CBI mission in Pakistan, in the context of CBI’s Natural Ingredients programme. During the mission, Bert-Jan and Michael trained five companies on traceability and sustainability requirements, and the certification thereof. Three companies are prepared for certification in 2017/18, using ProFound’s NI-CheckApp. The companies are getting ready for FairWild and organic certification audits later this year, and aim to present their dual-certified pine nuts at the BioFach trade fair in Germany in February 2018. At a trade Expo in Gilgit-Baltistan, the team received an award from the [Read more]

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