Strengthening the competitiveness of the agri-food sector, particularly the horticultural sector, through market intelligence services

Location Interventions may require travel to partner-countries. Depending on the nature of the assignment, experts may also be requested to carry out activities at COLEAD’s offices (including Brussels, Rungis, Nairobi, Lomé, or other locations). Budget The maximum value of this Contract Notice is € 1,000,000. This amount constitutes an overall maximum ceiling for the procedure and does not represent a commitment by the Contracting Authority to award contracts or assignments up to this amount, nor does it confer any entitlement to a specific volume of services on any successful tenderer. Provisional timetable Date of publication of this Contract Notice: 07/09/2026 Deadline for receipt of applications (expressions of interest): 07/10/2026 Deadline for publication of the shortlist: 22/10/2026 Expected date for sending invitations to tenders: 22/10/2026 Deadline for submission of tenders: 25/11/2026 Date of notification to the successful bidders: 15/02/2027 Expected start date of the contract: from the date of signature by the 2 contracting parties . The final schedule will be included in the tender documents during the next phase. Eligibility Participation is open, under equal conditions, to all natural persons and legal entities (participating individually or in a consortium of bidders) who are nationals of the ACP and EU States and/or listed here . A consortium may be a permanent group with legal status, or an informal group created for the purpose of a specific call for tenders. All the members of a consortium (i.e. the lead partner and all other partners) are jointly and severally liable to the contracting authority. A check will be carried out to ensure that none of the candidate bidders appears on any of the Financial Sanctions Lists (lists designating persons, groups or entities subject to financial sanctions by the United Nations, the EU and France). The participation of an ineligible natural person or legal entity will result in the automatic exclusion of the application concerned. If this ineligible person is part of a consortium, the application of the entire consortium will be excluded. Market description Type of contract This call for tenders concerns the provision of support services for the technical implementation of all of COLEAD's current and future projects/programmes. All successful tenderers will be offered a framework contract , which will specify the names of the selected experts and the maximum daily fee per expert. In certain cases, and following evaluation of the proposed CVs, the fees mentioned in the contract may differ from the fees proposed in the tenderer’s financial offer. The objective of this call for tenders is to create a pool of experts with the required expertise, as described in the "type of activities", who can be mobilised by COLEAD's technical team if necessary. Services will therefore be required on an as-needed basis and through ordering letters specifying the terms of the assignments. As a result of the above, it is important to note that in the context of this call for tenders, although the signing of a framework contract is a prerequisite for working with COLEAD, this does not guarantee that all service providers will be invited to carry out assignments. Principles of interventions In continuity with previous programmes, the intervention logic of COLEAD's programmes is based on the expression of requests for support from partner beneficiaries’ including MSMEs or producer groups in partner countries, but also from intermediate support structures - whether public or private - which are actively involved in the process of compliance and the development of value chains concerned (service providers, BMOs, training centres, inspection services, etc.). It also adopts the following modalities and principles of actions that have contributed to their success: - Local appropriation of the activities to be implemented to meet market expectations. - No substitution of local stakeholders in their respective roles and responsibilities. - Investment in local expertise and human resources through in-depth and long-term capacity building. Demand-driven intervention and participatory approach in the definition and implementation of the individual action plans to allow stakeholders to better balance growth and efficiency of the intervention to their absorption capacity. Cost-sharing principle, allowing for enhanced ownership and involvement in actions by the partner-beneficiaries. South-south cooperation through an existing network of 950+ experts and trainers and extensive network of technical partners. Technical, scientific and financial partnerships to avoid duplication, optimise synergies and upscale impact. Transversal focus on cross-cutting issues, such as climate, youth and gender. - Demand-driven intervention and participatory approach in the definition and implementation of the individual action plans to allow stakeholders to better balance growth and efficiency of the intervention to their absorption capacity. Cost-sharing principle, allowing for enhanced ownership and involvement in actions by the partner-beneficiaries. South-south cooperation through an existing network of 950+ experts and trainers and extensive network of technical partners. Technical, scientific and financial partnerships to avoid duplication, optimise synergies and upscale impact. Transversal focus on cross-cutting issues, such as climate, youth and gender. - Demand-driven intervention and participatory approach in the definition and implementation of the individual action plans to allow stakeholders to better balance growth and efficiency of the intervention to their absorption capacity. - Cost-sharing principle, allowing for enhanced ownership and involvement in actions by the partner-beneficiaries. - South-south cooperation through an existing network of 950+ experts and trainers and extensive network of technical partners. - Technical, scientific and financial partnerships to avoid duplication, optimise synergies and upscale impact. - Transversal focus on cross-cutting issues, such as climate, youth and gender. COLEAD will preferentially involve service providers whose consultants are based in targeted-countries, from which the partner-beneficiaries of the programmes are requesting support, in order to ensure that the characteristics of the operators concerned and their environment are considered rapidly and effectively. This concern for the increasing involvement of local expertise is an integral part of COLEAD's intervention logic. Geographic scope COLEAD's programmes and projects are implemented in a significant number of countries, with a particular emphasis on low-income and lower-middle-income countries eligible under the OECD DAC list of ODA recipients. The current portfolio is concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa; however, COLEAD's interventions are expanding to other regions, notably Latin America and the Caribbean. Assignments under this framework contract may therefore relate to any of COLEAD's partner countries, current or future, worldwide. Areas of services covered by the market The areas of services covered by this call for tenders are the following: Tenderers must demonstrate sufficient skills and experience in at least one of the subjects covered by this contract to enable them to carry out the tasks that may be assigned to them. Beneficiaries / target audiences The beneficiaries and target audiences of this contract are twofold. On the one hand, the services provided under this framework contract are coordinated and used by COLEAD’s internal departments, whose activities fall within the scope of the present call for tenders, in particular the Market Insights Department, in its role of planning, steering and integrating the services into COLEAD’s projects and programmes. On the other hand, the services are intended to benefit external stakeholders supported through COLEAD’s project