Market Linkages Facilitator ( Facilitate market linkages between Dominican exporters and Italian buyers)

Job Description

The Exporting Quality (EQ) Program is being implemented in the Dominican Republic. It works with five value chains, pineapple, cocoa, avocados, greenhouse, and Asian vegetables, and takes a “field to fork” approach, providing technical assistance all along the value chain, including producers, packinghouses, and exporters.

General Objective

Facilitate market linkages during Macfrut https://www.macfrut.com/en/ trade show between Dominican exporters of fresh produce and Italian buyers to contribute to an increase in Dominican exports to Italy.

Background

This consultancy is part of the Exporting Quality Program (EQ), a USDA-funded program managed by IESC under cooperative agreement FCC-517-2015/015-00. The program is providing technical assistance to increase productivity and sales for domestic and export markets of high-value fruit and vegetable global value chains. EQ Activity 2.05a “Facilitate Participation in External Trade Shows” contemplates sending exporters to US, Canadian, and European trade shows. The program will develop an awareness among lead producers and exporters as to import market requirements and expectations.

Consumption of tropical fruits in Italy has been increasing over the past few years, especially for pineapple and avocados. In 2018, Italy was the ninth importers of avocado and fifth importer of pineapple in the European Union. Consumer preference is for pineapple harvested at the optimum stage of maturity, with good color and high brix, and green avocados although the Hass variety is also getting increasingly popular. In 2018, Italy was the second main market for Dominican exports of pineapple and the twenty-fourth market for Dominican avocado.

Since the market offers room for growth, Exporting Quality will be sponsoring a select group of pineapple and avocado exporters to participate as visitors to Italian trade show Macfrut in the city of Rimini from May 5^th to 7^th, 2020. In that context, the program will hire a consultant company to organize a trade mission to promote market linkages and boost Dominican exports to Italy during the Macfrut.

Detailed Responsibilities

Prior to the start of the trade mission

• Travel to the Dominican Republic for 5 business days to hold marketing strategy discussions with each of the beneficiary and hold in-depth interviews to create beneficiaries’ profiles
• Hold remote interviews with Italian buyers to create matching profiles with program beneficiaries based on quality requirements, volume requirements, payments terms, projected growth, frequency, transport mode, certifications, quality grades, among other.
• Elaborate the mission agenda with IESC staff, including B2B meetings between exporters and buyers, participation to the Tropical Fruit Congress and visits to buyers’ facilities.
• Coordinate meetings and visits.

During the Trade Mission in Rimini, Italy

• Accompany IESC staff and beneficiaries to Macfrut and facilitate introduction meetings with end-market buyers
• Hold meetings with relevant key informants and create an awareness among beneficiaries on market trends, requirements and expectations
• Accompany IESC staff and beneficiaries to at least 2 buyers’ facilities before or after Macfrut
• Organize a debrief session on lessons learned after each day

After the mission

• Two weeks after Macfrut, hold follow up remote interviews with each program beneficiaries to discuss follow up, challenges, additional coaching
• Prepare mission report with recommendations

Deliverables and expected due dates

• One matching profile matrix based on exporters and buyers’ quality capacity/requirements, volume capacity/requirements, payments terms, projected growth, shipment frequency capacity/requirement, transport mode, certifications, quality grades, among other, due by March 31^st, 2020.
• Draft of mission agenda due by April, 6^th. Each exporter should be introduced to at least 5 buyers.
• Final mission agenda due by April 13^th, 2020
• Final report, due by May 15^th, 2020

Qualifications

• Company or individual with at least 10 years of working experience in agri-business, market linkages facilitation, fresh produce export, or related field
• Work experience in the fresh produce industry in Italy preferred
• Ability to map existing and potential buyers, analyze exporters’ profiles and promote right matching according to business capacity and market segments pursued
• Strong relationships with Italian buyers
• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills; and,
• Fluency in English and Spanish or Italian (desired).

About the Organization

The International Executive Service Corps is a Washington, DC-based non-profit organization with a focus on private sector growth. We support and catalyze the development of private enterprises, business support organizations, financial institutions, and public institutions. For nearly 50 years, IESC has been promoting stability and prosperity through private enterprise development. We design, implement, manage and evaluate economic growth programs under contracts and cooperative agreements with organizations like the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of State as well as for private companies and foreign governments. To ensure sustainable employment opportunities, generate increases in sales, and facilitate economic growth, we provide an array of services through each of our five practice areas: - Trade and Enterprise - ICT and Applied Technologies - Financial Services - Tourism - Public Sector and Business Enabling Environment Over the years, we’ve implemented more than 25,000 short-term projects and 200 programs in 130 countries.True to our mission— Promoting Prosperity and Stability through Private Enterprise — we’re proud to have created more than one million jobs all across the globe.