ensuring food safety
Blue Moon's Most Recent
Success Stories
"Over the past decade, Blue Moon has been a trailblazer on the road to sustainability and best practices in Egypt's agricultural sector and beyond. By focusing on promoting equal opportunity within our sphere of influence, we encourage and facilitate the implementation of voluntary sustainability standards for those seeking continuous improvement. Our journey prioritizes building and maintaining the trust of our local & international clients and delivering clear and honest results."
Omar El Masry, General Manager
01
NTWG
The National Technical Working Groups (NTWGs) are key bodies that have been established in many countries, including Egypt, to support the implementation of the GLOBALG.A.P. standard.
One of the main tasks of the NTWG is the development of National Interpretation Guidelines (NIGs), that adapt the GLOBALG.A.P. standard to local conditions and requirements. These guidelines help farmers better understand and implement the standard.
Towards the end of 2024 Blue Moon hosted the NIG development meeting with the participation of 30 key stakeholders for Egypt. These meetings were sponsored by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ Egypt).
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As the head of Egypt’s NTWG since 2010, Blue Moon organizes, hosts, and moderates periodic sessions to discuss the standard and its' local implementation with the participation of a variety of key stakeholders.
02
ESET Forum
The Egyptian Suppliers Ethical Trading (ESET) Forum was founded in December 2009 with the support of a group of international retailers; to facilitate a multi-stakeholder business-led initiative where participants address responsible sourcing issues to find realistic, and attainable solutions within the local context.
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National legislation, ILO conventions, and the ETI base code underpin the activities of the Forum.
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As the Forum marks 15 years in January 2025, it is an honor and great privilege to celebrate the collaborative effort of the Egyptian suppliers coming together and tackling key issues over the years.
Membership is open to all Egyptian suppliers.
03
Container Management Project
In cooperation with BASF Egypt, Blue Moon has managed to:
1.Raise awareness of the primary stakeholders on the responsible use of plant protection products, triple rinsing, and perforating agrichemical containers to prevent re-use.
2.Recover at least 85% of agrichemical containers used by the primary stakeholders.
3.Create a circular economy that is based on sound scientific and technical footing for the responsible management of empty agrichemical containers, and the production of acceptable end-use products that can help reduce risks and create jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities for the young generation (18-35 years old) in the communities we work with.
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The container management program has been fully aligned with:
·GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance Standard - Crop Base; (V.5.4-1) and later with specific emphasis on principles related to “Empty Plant Protection Product Containers”.
·The guidelines on the management options for empty pesticide containers; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, May 2008, and
·CropLife International Container Management Goals
·Egypt’s sustainable agricultural development strategy towards 2030
·UN sustainable development goals # 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 15 and 17
04
The Jasmine of Shubra Beloula
In early 2024 there was a wide discovery of child labor cases in the Jasmine fields of Shubra Beloula, a small village northwest of Cairo, where big-name brands source their jasmine for the perfume industry.
Many of the socially responsible international stakeholders became highly involved in the issue with the jasmine suppliers on a national scale. They aimed to take action to remediate the cases discovered and put policies and safeguards into place to ensure the eradication of child labor in the jasmine supply chain originating from Egypt.
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Blue Moon was involved in two separate projects where we completed the following interventions:
•Light touch risk assessment for jasmine growers
•Develop and conduct supplier training for four suppliers.
•Build suppliers capacity to improve social impact maturity.
•Support child labor monitoring and remediation framework and operationalize child labor policies and procedures.
•Support living income assessment study through rightsholder engagement
05
Egyptian Cotton - Impact Assessment
Over the past years, adverse issues experienced by cotton farmers and their community members have been exposed globally.
This includes instances of forced labour, health and safety impacts, and impacts on the right to water due to high levels of water consumption and pollution, soil degradation, and the use of harmful pesticides and fertilisers
Blue Moon paarticipated in an impact assessment study through key stakeholder interviews and on-site evaluations at a cotton farm, two ginning facilities and collection centres managed and owned by an Egyptian supplier. These activities aimed to better understand the basic working conditions at the ginning facilities and to understand the challenges and opportunities of the different stakeholders in the cotton supply chain.
06
The Cassava Growers of Sierra Leone
In 2022, Ms. Manal Saleh signed an individual service agreement with UNIDO as an international expert to build the capacity of cassava smallholders within the EU-funded West Africa Competitiveness Project (WACOMP). The overall objective of the project is to strengthen competitiveness and enhance integration into the regional and international trading system.
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The engagement of Ms. Saleh was focused on the implementation of GLOBALG.A.P. PFA for the PFA/localg.a.p. capacity building program at 3 cooperatives in Sierra Leone (Bondayila, Moawoma, and Tegloma).
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•Completed the capacity building program for the localg.a.p./PFA Standard (entry level) for the cassava value chain based on GLOBALG.A.P. IFA Fruits and vegetable V.5.2 - Option 2.
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•Developed a simple Quality Management System and other supporting documents that fit the needs of the localg.a.p./PFA Standard (entry level) but does not complicate the operation at the cooperative where resources and experience of cassava smallholders with food safety and sustainability requirements are quite limited.
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•Two national Consultants attended the Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) V6 Plants (Fruit and vegetables) virtual course (21 hours) offered by GLOBALG.A.P. master trainers covering the General Regulations, Principles and Criteria, as well as virtual farm activities. Sierra Leone is now added as a “country of origin” to the GLOBALG.A.P. Registered Trainer’s database
07
Tomatoes in Upper Egypt - CARE EGYPT
CARE Egypt Foundation (CEF) is an Egyptian, non-governmental organization harnessing the legacy of CARE International in Egypt since 1954 to fight poverty and improve livelihoods. The main objective of their agriculture and natural resources program is to increase equitable and sustainable accessibility to natural resources and services in rural communities in addition to supporting smallholder farmers economically with a special emphasis on empowering women.
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In 2023 Blue Moon submitted a technical and financial proposal to CEF in response to their tender 2/2023 aiming at building the capacity of 150 smallholders producing tomatoes in Qena and Luxor so that they can converge to Good Agriculture Practice based on the requirements of GLOBALG.A.P. IFA SMART v.6.0. In view of the prevailing culture in upper Egypt, only 49 smallholders managed to provide evidence for the legal use of agriculture land e.g. land deeds or rent contracts, and thus their names were mentioned on the GLOBALG.A.P. certificate issued by HEIACert.
08
Training & Capacity Building Programs
Blue Moon's team have extensive knowledge of the requirements of the voluntary sustainability standards as well as the expectations of the retailers and the consumer.
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We provide training services under two main activity types:
1.Integrated capacity building program to support producers’ convergence and certification scope e.g. amfori BSCI, BRCGS Food, BRCGS Ethical Trade and Responsible Sourcing, ETI/SMETA methodology, EU Organic Law, Fairtrade, GLOBALG.A.P., LEAF
2.Sustainable development programs for smallholders and seasonal workers e.g. USAID-funded project for Egyptian smallholders (Egypt), UNIDO-funded project for casava smallholders in Sierra Leone, and Care Egypt project for tomato smallholders in upper Egypt
