Technoserve

Alex Mikindi (sp?), Deputy Country Director of Technoserve presented this morning. Teh organization has received grants from Google.org and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. he was born and raised in Tanzania but received his Masters in the United States. Technoserve focuses on correcting the value chains for the cofee, banana and cashew industries in Tanzania. The organization also works in Latina America, other countries in Africa and India. Some examples of the work that they do are:

- Assist banana farmers remove the middlemen from their value chain. The transporters and brokers were taking most of the profit. Technoserve trained producers to do the work of these middle men and it helped organize the farmers as well as maximize their profit.

- Technoserve workes with 10,000 coffee farmers through a brand and association called Kilicafe that sells to Starbucks and illy. The farmers have ownership of the brand work together to maximize their profits and become more productive. Prior to Technoserves involvement, coffee producers were making less than a dollar a kilogram but now they sell to the U.S., Germany and Japan and receive two dollars a kilogram.

- The organization has not completed there work with the cashew industry in Tanzania but they have begun to identify the challenges. Cashew is the number one export crop in Tanzania and the 1st cashew crop that hits the market during the season. Cashews are expensive to the end consumer and usually eaten by wealthy people yet it is produced by the poorest farmers. Technoserve is planning on using the experiences that they have from their work in Mozambique with the cashew crop to help Tanzania.