Landell Mills wins EU-funded technical assistance contract to support small-scale horticulture farmers in Zimbabwe

Landell Mills has been awarded a technical assistance contract to deliver Targeted support for strengthening the capacity and competitiveness of small-scale horticulture farmers for the production of niche export products under the EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) in Zimbabwe.

Our support seeks to address some of the main constraints that hinder Zimbabwe's horticulture sector expand in relation to its compliance with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary and Technical Barriers to Trade Agreements and regional trade agreements. It focuses on seven value chains: sweet potato, floriculture, bananas, paprika, avocado, macadamia and pineapple.

Through stakeholder consultation, including interviewing over 300 smallholder farmers in May and June, we assessed the structure of each value chain and developed a baseline from which to assess the performance of each stage in the value chain.

In September and October, we plan to carry out a series of knowledge and skills-transfer training sessions for farmers and officials in the targeted value chains.

An 'export opportunity and requirements manual' and a stakeholder-led and 'good practice' value chain compliance system will be finalised after the training session and subsequent peer review.

The contract started in January, will run for 12 months with a value of just under €300,000, and is financed by the European Union (EU) under the TradeCom II - ACP Trade Capacity Building Programme on behalf of the Regional Authorising Officer (ACP Secretariat).