Details
Description
1. Background
The CCL (Comité de Coopération avec le Laos) has been involved in implementing rural development programs in Laos for almost 40 years. Currently, CCL works in 4 provinces of Laos. In Phongsaly the CCL is currently implementing a project aiming at strengthening local communities’ resilience towards climate change impacts and economic shocks. The projects follow an integrated and participatory approach.
The mission is integrated in GREEN project: Generating an inclusive Resilience and Environment Enhancement – GREEN (CCL, funded by AFD & BfW, 2023-2026)
The specific objectives of the Generating inclusive Resilience and Environment Enhancement Project (GREEN project – Phongsaly and Boun Neua districts) are:
- The natural resources of Phongsaly province are preserved and sustainably managed to favor a sustainable, inclusive, and localized economic development.
- The local stakeholders of Phongsaly province are strengthened, locally acknowledged, and participate in the sustainable and inclusive development of the territory;
- The local stakeholders of Phongsaly province are strengthened, locally acknowledged, and participate in the sustainable and inclusive development of the territory.
In 2013 CCL supported the creation of the non-profit association COSKA. Since then, a close partnership has been effective between both organizations. COSKA is partner to CCL for the implementation of both projects.
2. Context
GREEN project, in collaboration with the local authorities, aims to support the development of 3 main value chains adapted to climate change issues and economic needs of the villagers. To do so, the objective is to create a joint committee that will support the development of economic micro project at village level. This joint committee will be composed of 10 people/district, including 4 farmers’ representatives, 4 representatives of the District Departments and 2 representatives of the project team, will then select economic project.
15 villages will be prioritized by the joint economic project committee on the basis of several criteria, including i) the existence of the prioritized sectors; ii) the leadership of village authorities; iii) good social cohesion in the village; iv) potential opportunities for developing an economic project linked to these sectors (identification of potential outlets; accessibility of the village; etc.). Project-set-up training sessions will be organized in each of these 15 villages. The aim is to present the basics for setting up a project. The joint committee will then select 10 priority projects and locally promising projects that will be funded by GREEN project. Other projects will be encouraged to find other sources of funds (ex: from Village Saving and Loan Associations).
Close technical support will be provided by project technicians as well as technicians from local authorities. Internal expertise of CCL (in tea, agroforestry) or external (in animal husbandry, fish farming) will be mobilized to train and support the implementation of these initiatives. Exchange visits between the supported initiatives will later be organized.
The activities related to value chain development will be implemented by GREEN but also supported with technicians from COSKA (project partner). COSKA has built a specific expertise in women’s empowerment in supporting the creation of Women Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLA) from 2018 to 2022 in Phongsaly province. However, COSKA staff still needs get support to develop technical knowledge to implement this activity. This would indirectly improve the ability of the households to face climate change impacts.
After several discussions with both provincial and district office of BounNeau and Phongsaly, about the potential value chain to develop in these areas, the idea of developing macadamia, livestock (buffalo, cattle, poultry, pig), tea or fish was raised.
Before to start any value chain development strategy it is very important to analyse the opportunities and the added value of their development.
The consultancy aims to develop a value chain study of Macadamia. There are not many famers producing already this product, but the objective of the government aims to replace the sugarcane monoculture by a more sustainable source of income. They have been inspired by the northern Vietnamese farmers that produce macadamia and can sell it at international level.
The lack of local structures to support marketing and export is also one of the major obstacles to the sustainable development of the sector. Most producer families rely on a few local traders to sell their products. Usually, these traders make contracts with Chinese companies that try to pay very low prices to get more incomes when they sell it somewhere else. Without sustained demand, sales opportunities for farmers could be drastically reduced.
This study would permit to have an overview of the national and international market. It should explore several market opportunities that would allow the local farmers to sell their products at better price. Among them, the European Union market is one of the targets. More and more ethical/ responsible consumers care about environmental issues, sustainability, traceability, authenticity, naturalness. It is the reason why it will be also good to identify the opportunities in organic market as well as the fair-trade market.
Concerning the selling price of the product, a lot of parameters and criteria need to be improved and refined before defining price. It is expected that the study will provide inputs that can contribute to the definition of the range of the selling prices.
Retail and consumers prices will be defined according to several criteria including, the price at farmer-gate, intermediary costs including processing, transport, packaging, taxes fees, import/ export taxes, gross margin cost.
On CCL side we will provide a technical advice on how to improve the sustainable production of this value chain through agroecological systems. We already started to implement these systems with local farmers interested in growing macadamia.
The main implementing partners of the program are:
- Cooperation for Development and Support to Local Knowledge Association, Phongsaly (COSKA)
- Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office, Phongsaly (PAFO) and DAFO
- Lao Women Union and Lao Youth Union
3. Scope of the consultancy
The scope of the consultancy is integrated within one of the specific objectives of the project, to provide support to villagers and local authorities in the development of local economy and more especially sustainable and climate change adapted value chain development.
After discussing with local authorities and villagers we noticed that a Macadamia value chain might be worth developing in these districts. Before involving any micro-project fund into these activities, it would be interesting to study market opportunities.
4. Objectives & outputs of the consultancy
4.1- Overall objective of the consultancy:
Assess market opportunities and key involved parties (from producers to consumers) for the BounNeua district Macadamia value chain, in Laos, China, and in other promising consumer countries.
4.2- Specific Objectives of the consultancy:
Specific objective 1: Conduct an analysis of the raw and processed macadamia market for the consumers market target group
Output 1: Analysis of the consumer market for the raw and processed macadamia products, including a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the different markets
Output 2: Analyse the market opportunities offered by China, Lao PDR and other western countries to make a selection of 3 countries to prioritize
Specific objective 2: Understand the expectations and needs of wholesalers and retailers regarding the development and promotion of macadamia products in the market.
Output 3: Analysis of the wholesaler and retailers’ expectations and objectives in the development of the macadamia market
Specific objective 3: Understand motivations and expectations of macadamia producers in Boun Neua District for the value chain development and their engagement
Output 4: Analyse and list the macadamia producers and their expectation from the macadamia value chain in addition to the support needed
More details on the content of the Outputs and the deliverables in the ToR attached.