News Archives - Page 18 of 20

Trade Fair Season

Aafke van Sprundel2016-10-11T12:43:37+00:00January 21st, 2015|Tags: ASPIRE, beekeeping sector, Biofach, Ethiopia|

ProFound is very excited to participate in major trade fairs during the coming months! Our journey starts in Biofach, Germany, where five Ethiopian honey processors who we have supported, are ready to start supplying the European market. They will exhibit their products on ProFound’s Ethiopia pavilion. With our help, more Ethiopian honey processors have the chance to visit Biofach and to get introduced thoroughly to the European honey market. Next to that, our company will be contributing to the works of Gulfood, in Dubai, one of the world’s largest trade fairs for the food and hospitality industries. After a long [Read more]

The IN2NI network is launched!

Aafke van Sprundel2014-12-11T15:51:09+00:00December 11th, 2014|Tags: IN2NI|

ProFound is joining forces with Klaus Dürbeck Consulting, Walter de Boeck and Josef Brinckmann in a network of natural ingredients experts: IN2NI. This network was launched on December 4, where IN2NI was presented to a selected number of invitees. IN2NI promotes sustainable sourcing of natural ingredients by offering tailor-made information and training packages, online tools and other services to producers, buyers and business support organisations. For more information, please have a look at the IN2NI website.

Value chain development in South Africa

Aafke van Sprundel2016-10-11T12:44:32+00:00December 7th, 2014|Tags: CBI, South Africa|

While South African natural ingredient producers can boast strong unique selling points, such as an incredible biodiversity, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and access to technical skills, South Africa plays a relatively modest role on the international market for ingredients. Robbie Hogervorst supports CBI with a programme of strategic conferences in 2014 and 2015 to counter some of the root causes: cooperation and association at all levels of the value chain. First in this series, a conference on export development needs was held in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, bringing stakeholders together at a regional level. During this conference, critical bottlenecks [Read more]

FairWild training in Kosovo

Aafke van Sprundel2016-10-11T12:45:50+00:00December 5th, 2014|Tags: FairWild, GIZ, Klaus Dürbeck Consulting, Kosovo, wild-collection|

On behalf of FairWild, Bert-Jan Ottens examined the protocols and assessed the participants of the training in FairWild Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), conducted by Klaus Dürbeck and Stefan Lermer (Klaus Dürbeck Consulting) in November 2014. The training took place in the context of a GIZ-supported programme for sustainable wild-collection in Kosovo. Subjects covered the procedures for resource assessment and resource management by resource owners and users, including field training in transects for resource measurement.

Ethiopia goes to Biofach

Aafke van Sprundel2016-11-01T16:28:08+00:00November 26th, 2014|Tags: ASPIRE, beekeeping sector, Biofach, Ethiopia|

ProFound will bring 8 Ethiopian honey processors to Biofach 2015! Their participation is a reward for their outstanding progress through our Market Access Facilitation programme. This programme is one of the major components of ASPIRE, a honey sector development programme of ProFound and its partners SNV, Enclude and the Ethiopian Apiculture Board. During two years of intensive cooperation between ASPIRE partners and honey processors, ProFound audited these processors, educated them about European honey markets and prepared them for market entry. The processors developed marketing strategies and improved their capacities accordingly. At Biofach, 3 processors will be given a chance to [Read more]

CBI’s Natural Ingredients programme in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Aafke van Sprundel2016-11-01T16:28:08+00:00November 15th, 2014|Tags: Afghanistan, CBI, Export Development and Promotion Programme for natural ingredients, Klaus Dürbeck Consulting, Pakistan|

Together with its consortium partner Klaus Dürbeck Consulting (KDC), ProFound has won the tender for the CBI Export Development and Promotion Programmes for Natural Ingredients in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Covering a period of 4 years, the programmes aim to improve the export competitiveness of SMEs in developing countries, through tailored interventions at company and institutional level. The programmes affect the full value chain of the natural ingredients sector. To optimally improve export promotion, CBI integrates different services in the framework of its programmes. The integrated programmes are focused on the key actors, influencers and supporters of the export value chain. Services [Read more]

EXPRO Food Ingredients Asia

Aafke van Sprundel2016-10-11T12:48:43+00:00November 12th, 2014|Tags: CBI, EXPRO, food, IPD|

In the context of CBI's Food Ingredients Programme in Asia, ProFound supported companies from the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan during the EXPRO in France and Germany. The participants of the EXPRO focused on a wide range of food ingedients, including processed fruits, coconut oil, tea, coffee, cocoa, honey, spices and herbs, edible nuts and rice. Together with local experts, CBI experts Joost Pierrot and Jeroen Kruft, as well as trainer Julian Lawson Hill, ProFound consultants were responsible for guiding the companies through their market entry strategies. Gustavo Ferro focused on the companies handling processed fruits (incl. cashew nuts and coconut oil), while Kasper Kerver [Read more]

Competitiveness of West African cashews

Aafke van Sprundel2016-11-01T16:28:08+00:00November 11th, 2014|Tags: Cashew nuts, CBI, West Africa|

Almost half of the world’s cashew supply is produced in Africa, yet most processing takes place in Vietnam and India. This means that raw cashew nuts are shipped to Asia, shelled in Vietnam or India and then shipped to Europe. Not a very sustainable route to Europe. With the help of European actors, some local processing in Africa has been developed. But there still is a long way to go. For the CBI programme on Natural Ingredients West Africa, ProFound has dived into the European market for cashews and how West African countries can access this market. This Tailored Intelligence research has identified [Read more]

Natural Ingredients mission to Egypt

Aafke van Sprundel2014-09-18T15:42:30+00:00September 18th, 2014|Tags: CBI, Cosmetics, Egypt, Health, IPD|

The Egyptian natural ingredients sector finds itself at a crossroads. On the one hand, increasing quality requirements in the health and cosmetics sector put pressure on producers to step up; adding value to their products through quality improvement processing, documentation and certification. On the other hand, the weak organisation of the sector and the lack of awareness of value addition opportunities and market trends limits innovation. Ground water and soil contamination with pesticides and plastics adds to their difficulties. Within this context, ProFound natural ingredient consultant Robbie Hogervorst organised and facilitated a mission to Egypt for CBI in close coordination [Read more]

ProFound searching for alternative materials at Maison&Objet

Aafke van Sprundel2016-11-01T16:28:08+00:00September 10th, 2014|Tags: alternative materials for textiles, CBI|

As part of the new market research on alternative materials, Jesse Bloemendaal of ProFound visited the Maison&Objet in Paris to find interesting new materials on the EU market. The visit is part of a new market research on alternative materials for a variety of sectors. Alternative materials are materials for textiles or apparel products which are more sustainably produced compared to conventional materials such as cotton and leather. The first alternative materials that will be researched are organic cotton, hemp, jute, banana fibre, recycled leather and organic wool. This market research is a start by CBI to inform exporters in [Read more]