Development of a project to support the export of Ethiopian honey to the EU Ethiopia

Context of the service

The Ethiopian government has set significant export targets for honey, hoping to take advantage of strong demand from European countries and its position as Africa's largest producer.
One of the main obstacles to exporting is the inability of domestic manufacturers to meet the traceability, quality and safety standards of the European Union. In addition, national analytical laboratories lack the capacity and equipment to carry out all the required compliance tests.
UNIDO has called on SalvaTerra to develop a project for (i) support national institutions in the development of norms and standards in line with European requirements on quality, traceability and quality management systems applied to the honey industry, and (ii) support institutions and companies in the value chain for the implementation and verification of these standards.

Services provided

SalvaTerra carried out the entire development of the project on behalf of UNIDO, carrying out the following activities:
(i) Characterization of the honey value chain in Ethiopia: marketing channels and volumes involved,
(ii) Assessment of practices related to traceability, quality management, and certification of suppliers of product conformity assessment services,
(iii) In situ assessment of the equipment and training needs of the main agri-food analytical laboratories,
(iv) Identification and quantification of the investments needed to bring national laboratories into compliance with EU standards.
(v) Assessment of the capacities of national metrology, standardization and accreditation institutions,
(vi) Proposal of the institutional set-up for the project and validation of the principles of the intervention,
(vii) Final preparation of the project document.

Summary of the service

Development of a project to support the export of Ethiopian honey to the EU: Assessment of the value chain focusing on the needs of quality infrastructure to meet traceability and residue control criteria for export to the European market; Characterization and quantification of needs and opportunities for improving the capacities of national metrology, standardization and accreditation institutions; (iv) Drafting of a project document.