On June 7, the world marks World Food Safety Day, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly on December 12, 2018. This year’s theme is “Safe food now for a healthy tomorrow”, stressing that the production and consumption of safe food have immediate and long-term benefits for people,...

What is MARKUP all about and who is behind this programme? How does MARKUP work? Who can benefit from it? What can MARKUP do for my business? How can I contact MARKUP? The MARKUP information brochure provides an answer to these questions. An updated version is now available for download here. For...

From 10 to 14 May 2021, International Trade Centre (ITC) under the MARKUP programme organised a training workshop on Good Manufacturing Practices for the five Office du Thé du Burundi (OTB) factories managers, their tea makers, and their staff in charge of quality as well as three staff from Prothem...

Les institutions de l’infrastructure nationale Qualité (INQ) sont gouvernées par un cadre de réglementation technique qui d’une part leur donne un mandat pour leur fonctions et services, et d’autre part établit les exigences techniques pour les produits de consommation. Un cadre légal technique est...

The Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods (CCCF) finished its 14th Session on May 13, 2021. Key on committee’s agenda was the adoption of maximum limits for cadmium in cocoa and cocoa products attracting interest from all cocoa producing regions of Latin America, The Caribbean and Africa as well...

Coffee competitions and auctions held over the years in East African countries often revolved around competition juries to which international judges would fly in for the quality evaluation and Lot selection. But during a pandemic, such as the one we are living in, how can an international jury come...

For Rwanda, fine beans are an important horticulture export product accounting for 70% of Rwanda’s horticulture exports including to the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK). However, due to relatively lower sector development and therefore skills level as compared to Kenya for...

One of the objectives of MARKUP is to improve the harmonisation of standards for the priority value chains. Under the leadership of GIZ, one of the avenues to achieve this objective is through effective participation in the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and its subsidiary bodies. Codex...

If you ask June Gathoni today how her business is going, she will beam with confidence. But not long ago, she would have reacted differently. One of her company’s consignments to Korea was returned and the prospects for her company, Urban Fresh Ventures, did not appear very promising. However, June...

Stakeholders from across the East African Community (EAC) region and Europe gathered in the first week of March to participate in the MARKUP EAC Invest event. Participants praised the substantial dialogue during the fully virtual event and expressed optimism for the future of investment in the region...

Nowadays more than ever, learning how to take quality photographs and videos for social media and other branding communications is a valuable business skill. MARKUP via the International Trade Centre is happy to present the ‘Guide to Photographs and Videos on Social Media for Coffee SMEs in East...