The project was developed in 2014 by Unilever Tea Tanzania (UTT), a fully owned subsidiary of Unilever PLC with its principle activities being tea growing, primary processing and export of black tea.
The MOG project also follows a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2013 between the Government of Tanzania through the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives for building Private Public Partnerships focusing on further development of tea production and manufacturing in Tanzania. The MoU is in line with the 10 year strategy of the Tea Board of Tanzania (TBT) (2012/13-2022/23) and as per the 5 year strategic plan for the transformation of the tea sub-sector in Tanzania developed by the Tanzania Smallholder Tea Development Agency (TSHTDA) (2013/14 – 2017/18).
UTT has partnered with IDH for the MOG Project. The MOG project is also part of Grow Africa, a multi stakeholder partnership initiatives focusing on promoting investments in line with national priorities for the agriculture sector for Tanzania-SAGCOT
From the start, IDH has strived to be a result-oriented sustainable supply chain initiative aiming for mainstream market transformation in major commodity markets. Impact, value driven investment and innovation are key principles in our work. As a public-private initiative, IDH understands very well the responsibility it carries to not only communicate ambitious plans and activities but also to show meaningful results to its stakeholders.
Key elements in the MOG project have included the following:
- Introduction and roll out of the Farmer Field School methodology in Tanzania, both for brownfield (existing) and greenfield tea farmers (new).
- Piloting the greenfield approach (60ha) and prepare further roll out to 2.200 ha of tea. Embedding sustainable tea practices including agricultural diversification at household level through Farmer Field Schools and RA certification;
- The integration of the two extension approaches: FFS & training for RA certification;
- Set up of a Service Company to create a separate vehicle for providing access to services such as assisting in land preparation, input procurement and distribution, nursery development, Greenleaf transport and extension services.