The EU-EAC Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP) strives to break the international trade barriers through awareness creation and improving market access of East African products to the regional and international markets.Recently, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the European Speciality...

Mrs Pelagie Uwamugurije (50) is a pineapple farmer and trader in Nyamagabe District in Rwanda. In 2021, she joined the new pineapple collection and selling centre there, an initiative supported by the Oxfam through Sustainable Horticulture Value Chains (HVC) Project a project financed by the European...

MARKUP celebrates the International Women’s Day 2022 To mark International Women’s Day this year, MARKUP is celebrating the amazing contribution of women across our programme and is encouraged by the positive uptake and concrete results realised. The participation of women in a range of activities-...

EU-EAC MARKUP, through ITC, brought 10 avocado exporters from Kenya and Tanzania to the virtual exhibition Fruit Attraction LiveConnect. The second edition of this trade fair took place from 5 to 7 October 2021. The avocado exporters were among the 500 exhibitors operating in the fresh produce industry...

Specialty coffee is a coffee or coffee experience recognized for its distinctive attributes, and because of these attributes, has significant extra value in the marketplace. Specialty coffee is used to describe the highest grade of coffee available, and typically relates to the entire supply chain,...

As MARKUP’s project period is nearing its end, the Programme Coordination Unit commissioned the production of two longer and five short videos showcasing what SMEs, leaders of the EAC Secretariat, trade and investment support institutions as well as policy makers from the Partner States involved have...

In December 2021, EAC-EU MARKUP through ITC concluded the Quality Champions (QCs) training. More than 80 experts across the EAC have graduated from this training and are now certified Quality Champions. This marks a successful end to an exciting journey that began in 2019. The experts are now fully...

Through ITC, EAC-EU MARKUP has facilitated small and medium-sized enterprises in the five Partner States to access loans and grants amounting to about 9.4 million USD. Out of these, 3 million USD was acquired by enterprises in Burundi, 1.9 million in Kenya, 1.6 million USD by enterprises in Rwanda,...

Conceptualised through collaboration between ITC and Farwell Innovations, Nairobi, the MSME Financing Gateway was developed through MARKUP in response to overwhelming demand from thousands of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and financial services providers following a survey...

The EU-EAC MARKUP Programme Coordination Unit (PCU), together with the EAC Secretariat, National Steering Committee members led by the National Focal Point and MARKUP implementing agencies, carried out joint monitoring and data verification missions for Tanzania between 22 and 27 November and Kenya...

The 6th Regional Steering Committee of the EU-EAC Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP) is scheduled for 3 - 4 March 2022. The RSC is a platform for policy makers and the private sector from the Partner States to interact with Implementing Partners and the EU Delegation to jointly review progress...

A series of trainings for 261 stakeholders across sectors including academia, the private sector and government institutions have been completed across East African countries to address a recognised knowledge gap in standards harmonisation. 19 future trainers from national standard bodies were also...