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Certification & Verification

Introduction:
In 2009, the Eastern African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA) partnered with the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) and the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) in the execution of a 5-year project titled “Building Capacity in Coffee Certification and Verification for Specialty Coffee Farmers in EAFCA Countries”.

This project (Project no. CFC / ICO / 45) is to be implemented in EAFCA’s 9 member countries of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Broad Objectives:

• Build capacity within national coffee institutions to undertake training in sustainability practices.
• Building certification / verification training capacity through training of Trainer of Trainers (ToT)
• Register 25% increase in regional coffee exports that are certified / verified by end of the project
• Attain stable market access for farmers engaged in sustainable production

Implementation approach:
Two approaches were undertaken with regard to project implementation according to different countries:

• Trade route: Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. This is tailored to engage service providers (with the collaboration of the respective EAFCA Chapter) in the training of farmers.
• Institutional Route: Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This approach entails training of farmers through the identified national coffee institutions.

Activities undertaken so far:

• Compilation of the project management document (Inception Report)
• Conference preparations. A conference has been scheduled on 7th - 11th June 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya to bring together certification standard owners with a view to harmonizing areas of mutual interest as applied to project objectives.