MECAHC, one of our partners in Uganda, has secured a substantial loan of USD 200,000 from Root Capital. This critical financial boost allows them to strengthen their business, expand their reach, and maintain their independence. It’s a milestone that reflects MECAHC’s growing capacity and resilience in the competitive coffee market, and it highlights how Progreso’s support can open doors to larger financing opportunities.
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In September 2024, Progreso Foundation, Rabo Foundation, and Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) visited Koperasi Kopi Lintong Humbang Hasundutan in North Sumatra to monitor the cooperative’s progress. The team included representatives from Progreso, Rabo Foundation, and LDC, including program managers and agronomists.
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Earlier this month, a key visit took place to three coffee cooperatives in Eastern Uganda—MEACCE, MECAHC, and Bushika—by Anne Rappoldt (Program Manager Africa at Rabo Foundation), Imke Straaten (Program Manager Africa at Progreso Foundation), and Janet Maate (Project Manager Uganda at Progreso Foundation). These cooperatives are great examples of how targeted support and collaboration can significantly boost the coffee sector in Uganda.
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From September 8th to 21st, Progreso’s Federica Marra – Senior Product Owner at Beyco – and Natan Yao – Progreso’s Project Manager for Cote d’ Ivoire – travelled from west to east across Cote d’ Ivoire, exploring cocoa plantations and meeting dedicated producers and innovative technologies along the way.
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Progreso está contratando un Asesor Comercial – Nicaragua.
Tienes sólidas habilidades para el análisis comercial y financiero de organizaciones de productores; demostraste capacidad técnica para el desarrollo de proyectos; te apasionan las iniciativas con productores de café y cacao, microfinanzas, agroforestería y conservación. ¡Este puesto es para ti!
Como parte del equipo, usted reportará al Country Manager Nicaragua y al Coordinador de Programa en Latinoamérica. El candidato/a seleccionado será un punto de referencia para las operaciones en el país y punto de contacto para nuestros equipos y socios, ayudará en la mejora de los diseños de proyectos y la gestión del equipo.
Para la descripción completa, por favor dirígense aquí
Over the past months and as a part of their Final Master Thesis students from the Master in Big Data & Analytics at EAE Business School Barcelona have collaborated with the Netherland-based NGO, Progreso and Beyco, a blockchain coffee trading platform, to conduct and analysis of the overlaps between Progreso´s Colombian coffee plots and deforestation areas under the EU Regulations.
The research project examines the overlap between Progreso-supported coffee farming regions and deforestation areas, particularly in Colombia, in response to the EU Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR). As part of their research, the students have developed a geospatial data analysis framework to identify these overlaps.
Colombia was chosen due to its significant data availability on deforestation and coffee farming, provided by Progreso. This enables thorough analysis and robust conclusions. The framework aims for scalability, helping Progreso proactively assess environmental risks across its network using satellite imagery and geospatial data.
According to Federica Marra, Senior Product Owner Beyco: “It was great to collaborate with the EAE School and its students. It allowed Progreso to experiment on an important topic like geodata, EUDR compliance and the fight against deforestation, and it gave us great insight into how we could move forward in the future.“
The study focused on the environmental impact of coffee production, specifically its intersection with deforestation hotspots. It aims to support Progreso in enhancing sustainable coffee production practices and complying with EU regulations on deforestation-free products.
Nicolas Raimundez, from EAE Barcelona, who completed his Master’s Final Project (TFM) on this project, remarked: “Progreso’s collaboration with EAE Barcelona highlighted the importance of knowledge-sharing. Together, we tackled environmental challenges through data-driven approaches.”
Also, Fernando Luevano, a student from EAE Barcelona and part of this Master’s Final Project stated, “The synergy between EAE Business School Barcelona students and Progreso, showcased the power of multidisciplinary teamwork in addressing meaningful causes like deforestation and bringing about scalable solutions.”
Towards a sustainable coffee production
The project developed by Nicolas Raimundez, Fernando Luevano, Daniel Castro, Daniel Lyons and Sofia Ntalla, EAE Barcelona’s students of the Master in Big Data & Analytics emphasizes sustainable coffee production and geospatial analysis to meet EU deforestation regulations. Developing a scalable framework to identify overlaps between Progreso-supported coffee regions and deforestation areas, supports Progreso’s sustainability goals and sets a precedent for future research. The research underscores the effectiveness of data-driven approaches in addressing environmental challenges and highlights the need for ongoing innovation in data-sharing methods.
The Streamlit dashboard for Huila, Colombia, features a dynamic map aiding EU importers in verifying coffee origins and empowering farmers with conservation insights. It can scale to other regions like Peru, Nicaragua, and Rwanda, enhancing credibility through KPI tracking and proactive risk management. Challenges include data availability, computational resources, and remote internet access. Suggestions include real-time satellite integration, user training, and continuous improvement based on feedback.
Please see the Beyco website at www.beyco.nl
We are excited to announce a major update to the Beyco Farmer App, packed with new features designed to revolutionize the cocoa trade. Here’s a detailed look at what you can expect with this week’s release.
Cocoa sellers can now access loans directly through our platform, providing crucial financial support to help them grow and manage their operations more effectively. Our loan module has been updated to cater to coffee and cocoa sellers, ensuring that all our users can benefit from financial assistance tailored to their needs.
Traders and buyers can now request cocoa samples through the platform, simplifying the process of evaluating and purchasing cocoa products, fostering better decision-making and smoother transactions.
Cocoa deliveries can now be grouped within the BFA Dashboard, offering a more organized and streamlined approach to managing multiple deliveries, and enhancing overall efficiency. Additionally, you can publish cocoa deliveries as offers directly from the BFA Dashboard, facilitating quicker and more effective trading.
Sellers can now directly publish dried beans offers from the BFA, increasing visibility and making it easier for potential buyers to access these products. Traders also benefit by being able to sell and combine the dried beans they have in stock, providing more flexibility and better inventory management.
Both sellers and traders can now create liquor offers. Sellers can start from scratch or convert their dried beans into liquor, while traders can manage their liquor stocks, starting from zero, buying from sellers, or converting their dried beans. This conversion process maintains product traceability, ensuring transparency and quality control throughout the supply chain.
We’ve made significant improvements in how prices, differentials, and quantities are displayed during negotiations and in contracts, ensuring clearer and more accurate information for all parties involved. Our updated website now features a comprehensive ‘About Beyco’ page, providing detailed insights into our mission, values, and the services we offer.
We’ve also enhanced the user interface for cocoa offers. This includes a page views counter, allowing users to check how many times their offer page has been visited, and an accordion feature for easily viewing offers with multiple products. Based on user research, we’ve re-ordered the information to align with user preferences and needs.
Finally, we’ve improved our error messages to provide more detailed feedback. Users will now receive specific messages when their password is incorrect and clear indications when uploads fail due to file size issues.
Stay tuned for more updates and enhancements, and as always, we welcome your feedback to help us make Beyco even better!
We’re excited to welcome Andrea Miguel de Priego to our team as the new Project Manager for Peru.
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From March 4th until 8th, Beyco collaborated with the Design Thinkers Academy in their Design Thinking Bootcamp. Through a specific challenge, the Bootcamp actively engages the participants in solving an actual challenge for an existing organization, all of this while learning Design Thinking techniques.
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In today´s digital world, for smallholder farmer groups to trade smoothly they must have real-time and direct access to their supply chain data. It is therefore that Progreso offers them capacity-building so that they do not need to go through any third party to have access to their data. However, since the amount of small-holder farmer groups that need to be supported in high-quality data management is too large for Progreso, as a sole small-scale NGO, to handle, Progreso has initiated a partnership with Solidaridad East and Central Africa (Solidaridad ECA).
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