British Expertise
Entry Form: Outstanding International Collaboration
Project title
Improving nutrition through micronutrient premix
Project end date (actual/projected)
July 2009 - ongoing
Summary of project (500 words)
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is an alliance of government and
international organisations that aspires to end malnutrition and provide fortified food to 1.5
billion people in the developing world.
Some 870 million people do not have enough food to eat and 98 per cent of them live in
developing countries. Almost 15 per cent – 850 million people – of the population in
developing countries is undernourished while malnutrition contributes to five million deaths
of children under five each year in the developing world. (World Health Programme)
In 2009, GAIN’s Premix Facility (GPF) was launched to tackle the challenges faced by
government and industry partners in procuring premix for food fortification programmes,
including access to reliable suppliers, variable prices and ensuring product quality.
Crown Agents is the appointed procurement agent to the GPF and we work with a
certification agent, Intertek, to improve access to affordable, quality certified micronutrient
premix blends of vitamins and minerals used to fortify food staples like wheat flour, milk,
sugar and maize meal for food producers in developing countries.
Collaboration between Crown Agents, Intertek and GAIN is crucial to the success of the GPF.
Crown Agents undertakes a commercial evaluation for potential suppliers to ensure they
have the capacity to produce a sufficient quantity of premix. GAIN carries out a technical
review to ensure suppliers can meet client specifications and Intertek visits suppliers to
audit their facilities and also tests a sample of the premix product.
We supply premix to GAIN supported projects and our clients also include large and small
private sector food producers in developing countries, government departments and other
organisations like the World Food Programme and UNICEF.
When a customer places an order for premix through the GPF, Crown Agents organises a
competitive tender between approved blenders/suppliers. The winning blender sources raw
materials from approved manufacturers and we organise shipment to the client, sometimes
through Crown Agents’ logistics company Greenshields Cowie, which has extensive
experience of delivering goods to remote locations at competitive prices, safely and on time.
GAIN provides a large revolving fund to finance GPF activities and Crown Agents Bank
manages the fund. We facilitate payments to GPF suppliers and we process payments from
our clients. Crown Agents Bank supports large and small GPF clients by monitoring and
reporting on flexible financial packages including extended credit terms to assist cash flow.
This supports new and smaller businesses and ultimately, the beneficiaries of fortified foods
in the developing world.
Team work (125 words)
Effective teamwork between GAIN, Crown Agents and Intertek is crucial and we regularly
discuss new opportunities, existing clients and suppliers and how we can improve our
services. Our roles and work are tightly integrated with GAIN providing funding, marketing
and technical product specifications for the GPF. Crown Agents has the procurement
expertise to advise GAIN and ensure that suppliers fulfil obligations and appropriate due
diligence is undertaken. We also treat all premix suppliers fairly and without bias. We work
with GAIN to compare bids in terms of cost, delivery and sources of supply before reaching
approval. Intertek visits suppliers to audit premises and sample test their products to ensure
quality standards for new and existing premix suppliers.
Successful project (125 words)
To date, through the GPF, Crown Agents has sourced US$23 million worth of certified blends
of vitamins and minerals to enrich the diets of more than 242 million people in 34 countries
across Africa, Central and Southern Asia. We have certified a global network of 16 premix
blenders and 30 vitamin and mineral manufacturers. GAIN statistics show that adding folic
acid to maize and wheat flour can reduce neural tube defects by 30 per cent; cases of
anaemia dropped by one third following the fortification of soy sauce with iron, while iron
deficiency dropped by 14 percent, vitamin A deficiency by 10 percent, and anaemia by 11
percent.
Sustainable result (125 words)
Crown Agents’ procurement expertise and Intertek’s stringent certification process backed
by GAIN’s respected reputation around the world enables the GPF to attract and retain high
quality suppliers and clients. We continually review and expand our pool of certified
suppliers thereby ensuring that we pass on the best prices to our clients while ensuring the
sustainable supply of quality-assured fortified nutrients to undernourished people around
the world. We form long-term framework agreements of at least six months with suppliers
of strategic (regularly purchased) products to secure greater discounts for extended periods
of time. This means our clients, from government organisations, large private companies
through to independent millers can afford to purchase more products and reach a higher
number of people locally leading to sustainable development.
Challenging (125 words)
Government and industry partners face many challenges in procuring premix for food
fortification programmes, including access to reliable suppliers, variable prices and ensuring
product quality. Maintaining an effective and committed pool of suppliers is an ongoing
challenge for the GPF. Crown Agents’ streamlined procurement process and Intertek’s
quality-assurance support supports the GPF to access reliable suppliers and ensure
competitive prices. There are suppliers in every country we reach who are competing for
local business and supplying cheaper lower-quality products. By ensuring the quality of our
certified products and by driving down prices through competitive tendering, we are able to
compete against these cheaper, poorer quality premix sources. This supports the overriding
goal to improve the supply of fortified foods to developing countries.
Innovative (125 words)
Crown Agents ensures the availability of quality-assured and fortified premix products at
affordable prices. The GPF provides complete quality assurance from the pre-certification of
manufacturers to the suppliers of premix and our extensive resources ensure we can meet
any clients’ product specifications. Through competitive tendering we ensure clients benefit
from the best prices. Crown Agents Bank also offers ‘usage credit’ through GAIN so that
some clients can pay for products as they use them rather than paying upfront or upon
receipt of the goods. Around 40% of our clients use this system and we also extend credit to
up to 90 days for our smaller clients, which helps them to manage their cash flow and pass
the benefits on to the people most in need.
Strong local impact (125 words)
Prepositioned stocks improve the responsiveness of an emergency supply chain. By
establishing regional premix distribution networks, the GPF is speeding up access to
affordable, certified quality premix. In Kenya and Tanzania products are delivered to a local
warehousing and distribution company ensuring a ready supply of premix goods at
affordable prices. The warehouse company is helping to support local businesses by
distributing premix and raw materials to small mills within the country at lower prices and
also to neighbouring countries at reduced duty rates.
Meeting technical and cultural challenges (125 words)
Different countries have different needs and client requirements for combinations of premix
micronutrients are always changing and evolving. The GPF has an extensive pool of suppliers
to ensure that we can meet our clients’ demands for different combinations of existing and
new products. We work closely with other organisations such as the World Food
Programme (WFP) and UNICEF to remain aware of latest industry developments. The WFP is
currently amending its specification requirements and some 40% of GPF’s clients are
approved sources to the programme. In response, we have informed all suppliers about the
changes and we will ensure they are able to adhere to these specification changes to remain
accredited so that our supply chain of quality premix is unaffected.
What other information is relevant (125 words)
In 2009, the wider GAIN project improved the lives of 400 million people. Today, it has
reached 600 million people and this figure continues to grow. Crown Agents is proud to
support the GPF and GAIN to increase awareness about the link between nutrition and
health and the importance of nutrition for increasing the strength of malnourished people in
developing countries to fight serious health problems including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and
malaria.
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