Company Information: About HarvestPlus

At HarvestPlus, we believe that hidden hunger should not be inevitable for the people most at risk. We work at the intersection of agriculture and nutrition to develop creative solutions to combat hidden hunger. The HarvestPlus mission is to transform food systems to be more nutritious and more economically vibrant while improving public health. HarvestPlus develops and promotes staple crops that are enriched with vitamins and minerals through selective breeding and agronomic methods – a process known as biofortification. For the past two decades, the HarvestPlus program has led a global effort to scale up the production and consumption of nutrient-dense staple crops scientifically shown to improve nutritional status and health. Our vision is a more nutritionally resilient food system, with a goal to sustainably reach one billion people worldwide by 2030.

HarvestPlus works across CGIAR as part of th International Food Policy Research Institute. To learn more about HarvestPlus, visit our home page here.

Biofortification in Zambia

HarvestPlus in Zambia has been a pioneer in testing biofortified vitamin A maize in school feeding programs, with the aim to a) reach school children with improved nutrition, b) create demand for biofortified crops in a manner that will support the building of a market system for biofortified crops for smallholder farmers, c) increase smallholder and medium entrepreneur (SME) processing of various products for school feeding and other markets.

HarvestPlus with its new project PORRICH, funded by Seeding the Future Foundation and the Institute for Food Technology (IFT), now aims to leverage to scale the nutritional benefits of biofortified crops by developing ready-made food products that can be consumed by children through the strategic mechanism of school feeding. By involving the processing stage, we aim to develop nutrient-dense flours for porridge or other products that can be easily stored, handled, and prepared for a large number of consumers.

Home-grown school feeding programs aim to source the ingredients required for the preparation of meals from local suppliers. Our project responds to a gap in the supply chain: the linkage between the production of biofortified crops by local communities with a consumer group that requires nutrient-rich ingredients that are affordable and accessible to schools.

The products shall contain high iron beans, vitamin A orange sweet potato and vitamin A maize. The development of new formulas of nutrient-dense flours for porridge or other suitable products will add value to biofortified food crops produced mainly by small-scale farming communities in Zambia. The products will communicate the relevance of nutritious foods and balanced diets by highlighting the benefits through branding and marketing. Schools are thus enabled to make a conscious consumer choice in favor of more nutritious ingredients for school meals.

HarvestPlus is committed to the scaling and reaching more people with biofortified seeds, grains and foods, using a tried and tested delivery model and a scaling strategy. An essential part of this work is to understand the drivers of demand from schools.

Details of this Request for Proposals

Scope of Work

The successful candidate of this request for proposals will create 1-3 prototypes for suitable, nutritious, and tasty food products or food ingredients applicable to the Zambian school feeding programs and other markets beyond. The assignment includes the development of the prototypes, and the production of a first product line upon first user testing and consumer feedback. The candidate will develop a branding and marketing strategy for schools, and other markets beyond if applicable. A business plan will be developed towards the end of the project, based on nutrition testing, user experience and feedback from schools and representatives of the school feeding program. The candidate will contribute with technical expertise to ensure successful product testing and project evaluation, as well as documentation of lessons learnt, including recommendations for further commercialisation in cooperation with HarvestPlus.

The main objective of this RFP is to create 1-3 food products based on vitamin A maize, high iron beans, and orange flesh sweet potato (with the option to include other nutritious ingredients), of which at least one product is a flour formular for porridge, that is available and accessible to school feeding programs. The target is to cover 50% of the required average daily micronutrient requirements for vitamin A, iron or zinc with 200g of the food product.

Specific Deliverables

Prototype development

1. Identify suitable recipes for nutritious flour formulas (or other food products) applicable in school meal programs
2. Create and develop 1-3 prototypes for new food products with high nutritious content based on biofortified staple crops (and optionally other ingredients), with a target of 200g covering 50% of the average daily requirements for vitamin A, iron, or zinc
3. Report of product specifications and requirements (e.g. ingredients, potential suppliers, required volumes, food safety measures, hygiene, food product regulation requirements, estimated costs, etc.)
4. Produce a prototype (100 pieces) for consumer feedback and testing

First product line

1. Develop a production plan for the first product line (including assessment of costs, required volumes, potential suppliers, as well as above and/or other requirements)
2. Produce first product line for 1-3 products for 88 schools (10,000 pieces)

Marketing and communication strategy

1. Develop a branding, marketing, and communication strategy for the new food products targeted at schools (and optionally other markets), based on the feedback from consumer testing and user experience, and under consideration of consumer attitudes, market trends, and consumer awareness for nutritious foods in Zambia

Business Plan Development

1. Assess the potential of the food products in regards to nutritional impact, end user acceptance, and market viability
2. Assess potential sales patterns, trends, market development for nutritious food products in school feeding and other markets for the next five years
3. Develop a business plan for production and financial projections for 5 years, including potential agreements with suppliers, HarvestPlus, and/or other licensing agreements

Technical assistant and project evaluation

1. Provide overall technical assistance to the project in regards to nutritious food product development in Zambia (e.g. by contributing to data collection on the viability of the Zambian market for biofortified food products, food trends, and food product sales)
2. Contribute to the project evaluation with lessons learnt and recommendations

Timeline

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in food product development, prototyping, testing, and consumer-oriented development based on user feedback and market requirements under special consideration of nutrition and health aspects
• Knowledge of consumer attitudes, ideally children and stakeholders linked to school feeding
• Understanding of regulatory requirements, market requirements, market trends, and user preferences in Zambia
• Experience in strategizing market entry and scaling food products in the market
• Experience in business plan development
• Knowledge of specific challenges in creating local supply chains involving institutional off-takers
• Adaptability to existing workplans
• Presence in Zambia and the ability to work alongside HarvestPlus expert agronomists, nutritionists, and project managers
• Partner must be licensed to operate in Zambia with immediate start, May 2024

To Apply

Submit technical proposal (including understanding of scope of work, deliverables, relevant experience, methodlogy, etc.) and financial proposal to the IFPRI website. In the event of any questions please reach out to k.foley@cgiar.org.