Utilisation of Production Residues in the Food-Processing Sector in Western Balkans

Country: Regional

Business sector: Sustainable Resources and Climate Change

Project number: 48700

Funding source: Central European Initiative

Contract type: Consultancy Services

Notice type: Invitation for expressions of interest (CSU)

Issue date: 24 Sep 2015

Closing date: 21 Oct 2015   at  23:59   London

Access eSelection

Project Description:
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the “Bank”) launched the Sustainable Resource Initiative (“SRI”) in 2013 as resource efficiency has risen as a global priority due to the rapid growth in resource demand, rising and increasingly volatile resource prices, and growing environmental concerns. One of the SRI objectives is to support investments for the reduction of wastes in transformation processes, through modernisation of production systems, reuse of waste streams by capturing the commercial value of waste materials, recycling and using materials with lower environmental footprint. The agribusiness industry is particularly relevant in this context as it generates a number of potentially-valuable residues and it has already developed different approaches and technologies for reusing waste streams.

Assignment Description:
The EBRD intends to engage a consultancy firm (the “Consultant”) to conduct a study that will be aimed to identify the potential for investments in food and beverage manufacturing industry in Western Balkans (the "Assignment"). The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:

• Reviewing the type and volume of the major residues generated in the food-processing sectors, their current prevailing uses and the relevant commercial and regulatory drivers in place in the region;

• Analysing all the most significant possible uses of the residues beyond those currently in place, such as conversion into biofuels, production of insulation materials, or fertilizers before/after anaerobic digestion, or bio-plastics, or other intermediate products suitable for use as feedstock in other sectors and carry out;

Develop some case studies related to selected food and beverage Companies operating in the region.

Consultants should refer to the Terms of Reference ('ToR') for a more detailed description of service requirements. It should be noted that the draft ToR are provided for information purposes and are subject to change before the contracting and commence of the services.

Status of Selection Process: Interested firms or groups of firms are hereby invited to submit proposals in line with the requirements set out in section A. and B. of this procurement notice and are required to comply with the Eligibility criteria as mentioned below.

Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in Q4 2015 and has an estimated overall duration of 4 months. It is important that the Consultant can start work as soon as possible after appointment.

Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 150,000 (exclusive of VAT). Subject to availability of funding.

The Consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the special status of the Bank as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a Consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purchased in connection with the provision of services (e.g. VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the Consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the Consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.

Funding Source: Central European Initiative (CEI) fund.

Eligibility: Eligibility for assignments in CEI Member Countries is restricted to:

• individual consultants of Italian nationality;

• consultancy firms registered in Italy using their employees of any nationality and/or non-employees of Italian nationality. These firms can, however, subcontract, associate with or hire external experts or consulting firms from other CEI Member Countries [Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine] up to a maximum of 30 percent of the individual contract amount.

Only companies or group of firms meeting the above requirements can apply.

Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms preferably with previous project experience relating to:

- Agribusiness sector and residues management;

- Market demand and assessment studies;

- Engineering expertise related to resource efficient technologies;

- Preferably previous experience in the Western Balkans region;

- Preferably in EBRD countries of operations.

The Consultant should nominate a team of international experts and local experts to ensure access to local information and data, knowledge of the local agribusiness market and contacts with the relevant stakeholders to be interviewed. The Consultant’s expert team will include the following Key Experts:

• Key Expert(s) No. 1: Engineering Expert(s) with preferably 10 years of previous professional experience in in the agribusiness sector, resource efficiency technologies, residues optimization and management.

• Key Expert(s) No. 2: Regulation and Policy Expert(s) with preferably 10 years of previous professional experience, with expertise in international and national legislation, policies and standards relevant the agribusiness sector.

• Key Expert(s) No. 3: Market Expert(s), with preferably 10 years of previous professional experience in the agribusiness sector.

Submission Requirements: In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants seeking to be selected for this Assignment, the information submitted should include the following:

A. Technical Proposal

A1. Completed Consultant Declaration Form and Contact Sheet, the template for which is available from the following web-link:

http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc.

A2. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max. 2-4 pages).

A3. Details of previous project experience in similar technical assignments particularly in the food processing sector and in residues recovery undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contract value, contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided (if different from duration), main activities, objectives (max. 10 pages).

A4. CVs of Key Experts who could carry out the Assignment detailing qualifications, experience in similar assignments, particularly assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, main activities, objectives.

A5. Technical Approach and Methodology explaining the understanding of the objectives of the assignment as outlined in the ToR, the technical approach, the methodology for implementing the tasks to deliver the expected output(s), and the degree of detail of such output (max. 10 pages).

B. Financial Proposal (in the format included in Annex 1 to the ToR) not exceeding the cost estimate provided in this procurement notice.

Submission format:

• The Technical Proposal shall be submitted, in English, electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date.

• The Financial Proposal shall be submitted in English separately by email only to the Bank Contact Person (michelj@ebrd.com) as it will not be open with the Technical Proposal.

Bank Contact Person:

Julie Michel

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

One Exchange Square

London EC2A 2JN

Tel: + 44 20 7338 7556

e-mail: michelj@ebrd.com

(The Technical Proposal should be sent through eSelection while the Financial Proposal should be sent this email address only)

Notes:

1. This is a Selection from Shortlist procedure as envisaged in the EBRD’s Procurement Policies & Rules. The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification only. The highest-ranked Consultant will be invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.

1. The proposal validity period is 90 days from the deadline date for receipt of submissions. During this period, the Consultant shall maintain its original Proposal without any change, including the availability of the Experts, the proposed rates and the total price.

1. The award criteria are as follows:

1. Firm’s previous project experience in similar assignments (technologies assessment, market assessment and legislation review) in the agribusiness sector (35%)

1. Qualifications of the Key Experts (CV) (45%)

1. Firm’s previous experience of Consultant in Western Balkans (10%)

1. Technical Approach and Methodology (10%)

1. Opening of Financial Proposals

After the Technical evaluation is completed, only the submissions which score 70% or more of the total marks available for the technical criteria (a-e inclusive) will be eligible to have their financial proposals opened.

1. Combined Technical and Financial evaluation

In combining the Technical and Financial evaluation, the methodology below shall be applied. The evaluated Financial Proposal will be converted to a final score (points) in the following manner:

FSa = LP¸ EPa x 100

where: a = the proposal being evaluated

FSa = evaluated financial score for proposal a

LP = the lowest evaluated financial proposal

EPa = the evaluated financial proposal for proposal a.

In combining the Financial Score with the Technical Score, the Financial Score shall be given a weight of 10%.

The Technical score and the Financial score shall be combined in the following manner:

CSa = TSa [(100-W) ¸ 100] + FSa (W ¸ 100)

where: a = the proposal being evaluated

CSa = combined evaluated score of proposal a

TSa = technical score for proposal a (where TS max = 100)

FSa = financial score for proposal a (where FS max = 100)

W = the weight given the financial score