Market Linkage and Sourcing Partnership for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
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Background
TechnoServe is an international non-profit organization that promotes business solutions to poverty in developing countries. It is headquartered in Washington, DC, and operates in 29 countries worldwide. TechnoServe's mission is to work with enterprises and women in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses, and industries. It does this by linking people to information, capital, and markets. With nearly 50 years of proven results, TechnoServe believes in the power of private enterprise to transform lives. TechnoServe Uganda is implementing the Growing Resilience and Opportunities for Wealth through Horticulture (GROWTH) Project, a five-year program funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) and implemented in partnership with Agiterna and Wageningen University & Research (WUR). The project aims to improve productivity, climate resilience, food safety, and market participation among smallholder horticultural farmers through climate-smart production technologies, strengthened farmer organizations, improved extension services, and strategic private-sector engagement.
Objective
GROWTH seeks to partner with established local and national buyers, processors, technology promoters, and exporters (businesses) to create reliable, commercially viable off-take channels that reduce post-harvest losses, improve food safety and quality standards, and improve farmer incomes.
Specific Objectives
Establish Aggregation Infrastructure: Set up and operationalize community-level aggregation hubs to streamline the collection of fresh fruits and vegetables, improve logistics, and reduce post-harvest losses.
Enhance Post-Harvest Handling (PHH): Build the capacity of smallholder farmers and Farmer Organizations (FOs) in best practices for post-harvest handling, including proper sorting, grading, and packaging to meet commercial buyer requirements.
Facilitate Market Linkages: Identify reliable local, national, or regional off-takers and facilitate the signing of formal supply agreements (contracts or MoUs) between buyers and participating FOs.
Promote Quality and Food Safety Standards: Train farmers and extension agents on compliance with voluntary quality and food safety standards (e.g., GLOBALG.A.P., local phytosanitary standards) demanded by high-value markets.
Strengthen Collective Marketing: Coach FOs in business management, collective marketing strategies, and market intelligence gathering to enhance their bargaining power and profitability.
The matching grant will be awarded to Agri-SMEs, farmer cooperatives, off-takers, and processors with commercially viable models that establish reliable market linkages, enhance value addition, and provide sustainable sourcing solutions for horticultural farmers in the following areas:
Lots Thematic Areas
Lot 1 Structured Out-Grower Schemes and Export Market Linkages: Developing robust out-grower models that provide structured market linkages and embedded services to smallholder horticulture farmers, ensuring a reliable and sustainable supply of fresh fruits and vegetables (FFVs) for regional and international export markets.
Lot 2 Private Sector-Led Quality Guarantee and Traceability Schemes: Implementing private quality assurance schemes for the supply of FFVs to domestic and regional markets. This includes establishing certification processes and quality labels for value-chain actors to ensure compliance with food safety and consumer standards.
Lot 3 FFV Processing and Value-Addition Capacity: Advancing processing and value-addition capabilities by partnering with small and large-scale processors to create reliable, commercially viable off-take channels that absorb smallholder produce and increase overall market value.
Lot 4 Post-Harvest Handling (PHH) and Preservation Technologies: Deploying innovative post-harvest handling and preservation technologies, such as piloting, testing, or scaling on-farm cooling solutions, to drastically reduce post-harvest losses and maintain the quality of fruits and vegetables.
Lot 5
Cooperative Aggregation and Marketing Integration: Strengthening the capacity of farmer organizations, groups, and cooperatives to improve their aggregation models, integrate value-addition and processing activities, and establish direct, sustainable marketing linkages for their members.
Lot 6
Food Safety Compliance and Testing Services: Enhancing food safety and market readiness by providing accessible biological and chemical laboratory testing services to FFV value chain actors, ensuring products meet stringent market and buyer requirements.
Eligibility for Interested Applicants
Must be a registered Agri-SME, an established local or national buyer, processor, or exporter operating within the horticulture sector.
Must be actively engaged in high-value fresh fruit and vegetable value chains (including, but not limited to, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, onions, peppers, carrots, okra, pineapple, passion fruit, and mango).
Must have existing operations or demonstrate a clear capacity to establish operations in one or more of the five target regions in Uganda: Buganda, Busoga, Elgon, Rwenzori, and Kigezi.
Must have established, credible market linkages (domestic, regional, or export) and demonstrate the ability to facilitate and sign formal off-take contracts or Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with organized Farmer Organizations (FOs).
Must demonstrate proven experience and capability in the following priority areas:
Establishing and operationalizing decentralized community aggregation hubs and streamlining transport logistics.
Promoting Post-Harvest Handling (PHH) technologies and providing hands-on training to farmers on sorting, grading, packaging, and temperature management.
Implementing and building capacity for voluntary and mandatory food safety standards (e.g., GLOBALG.A.P., HACCP, organic, and national phytosanitary requirements).
Strengthening the business management, collective marketing, and price negotiation capacities of cooperatives, SACCOs, and producer groups.
Must align with the project's private-sector execution model by demonstrating the willingness and financial capacity to co-invest in initial market entry overhauls, digital supply chain tools, and aggregation infrastructure. Interventions must be designed to be commercially self-sustaining beyond the life of the donor funding.
Must have the internal systems and capacity to collect real-time data, establish buyer feedback loops, and track key indicators of success, including:
Marketed metric tonnage and financial value (in UGX).
Percentage reduction in post-harvest losses and buyer rejection rates.
Number of formal supply agreements executed.
Adoption rates of PHH technologies and quality/food safety standards.
Net increases in smallholder farmer household incomes.
RFA Issuance
The complete RFA documents (Terms of Reference-TOR) shall be provided for free upon request by emailing: growthapplications
tns.org from 27th August 2026 to 10th September 2026. Applicants should indicate the Lot number and RFA title in the subject line of their email.
Procedure and Deadline for submission of applications:
Completed applications must be submitted electronically by email in PDF, MS excel format to: growthapplicationstns.org
Questions and Submission Deadlines
Deadline for Questions: 7th September 2026. All questions and clarifications must be sent via email to: growthapplicationstns.org
Submission Deadline: 10th September 2026 at 23:59 hours (EAT).
Note: Late submissions will not be accepted.
Women-led, youth-led, and other qualified eligible organizations are strongly encouraged to apply.
Disclaimer: TechnoServe reserves the right to accept or reject any application, cancel the process in whole or in part, and is under no obligation to award any subaward. Submitted applications shall become the property of TechnoServe.a