Overview
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST - FIRMS
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) towards the cost of the AgriMSE Business Development and Intra-Regional Market Integration Project and intends to apply a portion of the proceeds to eligible payments under this contract. Payment by CDB will be made only at the request of IICA and upon approval by CDB, and will be subject, in all respects, to the terms and conditions of the Financing Agreement. The Financing Agreement prohibits withdrawal from the financing account for the purpose of any payment to persons or entities, or for any import of goods, if such payment or import, to the knowledge of CDB, is prohibited by a decision of the United Nations Security Council taken under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. No party other than IICA shall derive any rights from the Financing Agreement or have any claim to the proceeds of the Financing Agreement.
IICA, the Executing Agency, now wishes to procure consultancy services for Strengthening AgriMSE’s Business and Production Operational Efficiencies.
The objective of the consultancy is to strengthen AgriMSE’s business and production operational efficiencies. The consultant will focus on strengthening market-ready/compliant products, addressing safety, quality and fundamental scale-up challenges and strengthening administrative and management capacities of AgriMSE operations in preparation for export readiness. The consultancy will be implemented in five (5) BMCs, namely Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. Further details can be found in the attached Terms of Reference (TOR). The duration of the assignment is expected to be for a period of twenty months.
IICA now invites interested eligible consulting firms to submit Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the provision of these consultancy services.
Eligibility
Consultants shall be eligible to participate if:
(a) in the case of a body corporate, it is legally incorporated or otherwise organised in an eligible country, has its principal place of business in an eligible country and is more than 50 per cent beneficially owned by citizen(s) and/or bona fide resident(s) of eligible country(ies) or by a body(ies) corporate meeting these requirements.
(b) in the case of unincorporated firms, the persons are citizens or bona fide residents of an eligible country; and
(c) in all cases, the consultant has no arrangement and undertakes not to make any arrangements, whereby any substantial part of the net profits or other tangible benefits of the contract will accrue or be paid to a person not a citizen or bona fide resident of an eligible country.
Eligible countries are member countries of CDB.[1] Consultants are advised to review the detailed eligibility criteria detailed in Section 4 and conflict of interest provisions in Section 5 of the Procurement Procedures for Projects Financed by CDB (January 2021).
In the assessment of submissions, consideration will be given to technical competence, qualifications and experience, local and regional experience on similar assignments, financial capability, and existing commitments. Key Experts will not be evaluated at the EOI submission stage.
[1] Occasionally contracts may be financed out of special programmes that would further expand the number of eligible countries or restrict eligibility to a particular group of member countries. When this is the case, it should be mentioned in this paragraph.
Instructions
Interested consultant teams are required to submit their Expression of Interest using the “EOI Consulting Firms template” attached to this REOI or can be made available upon request by contacting Address 1 below or downloaded from the Specific Procurement Notice on CDB’s website.
All information must be submitted in English. Further information may be obtained from the first address below between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm (GMT-3) Mondays to Fridays.
Expressions of Interest should be submitted at the first address below no later than 5:00 pm GMT-3, 6 June 2025. One electronic copy must be sent simultaneously to CDB at the second address below. The email containing each submission should include the name and address of the applicant and shall be clearly marked “Expression of Interest – Consultancy Services for Strengthening AgriMSE’s Business And Production Operational Efficiencies - IICA."
The selection method shall be Consultants’ Qualifications Selection. Therefore, following the assessment of submissions, firms shall be assessed and compared, and the best qualified and experienced firm shall be selected. Only the selected firm shall be asked to submit a combined technical and financial proposal and, if such proposal is responsive and acceptable, be invited to negotiate a contract. IICA reserves the right to accept or reject late applications or to cancel the present invitation partially or in its entirety. It will not be bound to assign any reason for not selecting any applicant and will not defray any costs incurred by any applicant in the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest.
Contacts
Address 1
Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA)
P.O. Box1318, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
#59 Gordon Street,
St. Augustine
Trinidad and Tobago
Address 2
Caribbean Development Bank
P.O. Box 408
Wildey
St. Michael
Barbados, BB11000