Posted: 01-Mar-23
Location: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Type: Volunteer Globally
Categories:
Additional Information:
Internal Number: KYR-2014-072
Project Overview
The John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer Program provides technical assistance from U.S. volunteers to farmers, farm groups, agribusinesses, and other agriculture sector institutions in developing and transitional countries with the goal of promoting sustainable improvements in food security and agricultural processing, production, and marketing. The program leverages the expertise of volunteers from U.S. farms, universities, cooperatives, private agribusinesses, and nonprofit farm organizations to respond to the local needs of host-country farmers and organizations.
ACDI/VOCA’s Farmer-to-Farmer program drives sustainable, broad-based economic growth and strengthens agricultural sector institutions in Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The five-year program is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Summary of Assignment
ACDI/VOCA will engage both a local volunteer, who will personally meet and interact with the host, and a US-based volunteer, who will provide mentorship, guidance, and recommendations to the local volunteer and host virtually, as required by USAID.
The host bakery produces the following confectionery products - shortbread cookies, tartlets, cake, pastries and cakes. However, their current production practices do not fully meet all the norms and requirements of food safety technology.
They started by making rolls at home and selling them to local shops and markets in Jalal-Abad and then expanded the company to include: shortbread cookies, tartlets, and cake. The taste of their product line are highly appreciated by local buyers, so the bakery expanded to a 2-room building for production. The company recruited a team to operate at full capacity and established its activities.
The main range of this company:
- Shortbread by weight;
- Tartlets;
- Cupcake - in boxes;
- Cakes;
Now, the bakery would like to add new products to their customers, which will increase demand in the market. For this purpose, the bakery is requesting volunteer assistance to improve their sanitation practices and help develop new confectionery products. The bakery management considers quality management and high product standards as an integral part of success and they want to learn the best practices.
Assignment Activities
- Introduce new technology of confectionery products
- Introduce practices in professional volume confectionery technology practices including determining if new recipes have market acceptability.
- Auditing readiness of confectionery shop for the introduction of HACCP elements
- Introduction of HACCP system
- Development of necessary documentation
- Training of the host’s employees on the regular support system to ensure safety of confectionery products.
- Train host’s staff to practice food safety standards.
- Develop Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Maintenance schedule for all equipment.
- Education in Food Safety, Culinary Arts or equivalent work experience in this field.
- Must have at least 3-5 years’ work experience in food processing or food technology.
- Experienced in quality management, HACCP or other type of quality standards in food processing.
