1. Background

Agriterra and CTCF have been cooperating in various fields since 2012. Established in 2010, CTCF has grown into an organization with 100 member cooperatives, representing over 6,000 tea farmers, and now holds a 25% market share in Nepal's orthodox tea industry. Over the years, CTCF has become a well-known federation, both internally and in areas like lobbying, advocacy, and providing services to its members.

By 2017, the cooperation between Agriterra and CTCF focused on evaluating their activities. Recently, many of CTCF's members have started tea processing factories, increasing their demand for marketing support to sell their tea. Currently, most tea is sold to middlemen at low prices.

In July 2018, an Agripool assignment was conducted to establish a Marketing Facilitation Desk (MFD) within CTCF to address members’ needs. Experts found that Ilam's tea is of high quality and has potential to sell in international markets. The MFD aims to link members' tea with national and international buyers through promotional activities and by attracting buyers to purchase cooperative tea.

The MFD will charge a fee (10-15% of sales) for these linkage services, which will help it become self-sustainable. CTCF has planned to sell 1,500 kg of tea through the MFD between October 2018 and December 2019.

2. Project Activities

• Develop a 3-Year Strategic Plan for the Market Facilitation Desk
• Develop vacancy and conduct interviews to hire a Marketing Coordinator.
• Hire one Marketing Coordinator for 15 months.
• Collect and document stories of primary cooperatives and farmers.
• Update the CTCF website and create ICT mapping.
• Update CTCF’s social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram).
• Set up a tasting room in CTCF Nepal.
• Organize meetings with 15 processing cooperatives to develop a coalition.
• Create a database of 100 tea buyers.
• Organize quality and hygiene training for 15 coalition cooperatives.
• Participate in a tea expo in India.
• Collect and dispatch tea samples to 10 potential international buyers.
• Meet with tea traders in Kathmandu.
• Meet with chain stores and restaurants.
• Provide factory record-keeping training to 15 processing cooperatives.

3. Lobby and Acquisition

• Meeting with Agriterra and other agencies for joint acquisition planning.
• Participate in two meetings on NCDPP.
• Organize consultative workshops and participatory research with 15 primary cooperatives using the FACT approach.
• Hire a consultant to develop a policy paper.
• Submit a policy proposal to NTCDB and MOF.
• Hold a review meeting with NTCDB and stakeholders to get updates on the "Nepal Tea" trademark.

4. Services by Agriterra

Advice

1. Develop a 3-year strategic plan for the Market Facilitation Desk.
2. Conduct an Agripool assignment for branding and positioning strategy.

Training

1. Provide marketing basics training.

5. Award Received from Agriterra as Best Performing Client from Globe