Consultant Opportunity: Beef Jerky Development - SQIL Project
Land O'Lakes Venture37
Tbilisi, Georgia
Posted on Mar 29, 2025
Consultancy Request
Beef Jerky Development
Safety and Quality Investment in Livestock
Tbilisi, Georgia
Background: Land O'Lakes’ Venture37 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit helping communities around the world build economies by strengthening agriculture from farm-to-fork, helping businesses grow, and linking farmers to markets. Since our start in 1981, we have been leveraging nearly 100 years of expertise in dairy, animal nutrition, crop inputs and agricultural insights from our close affiliate, Land O’Lakes, Inc., a farmer-owned agribusiness committed to fulfilling its purpose of feeding human progress.
Our team is made up of nearly 350 employees who are committed to market-led approaches, and passionate about collaborating locally to create lasting inclusive economic growth. By unlocking the potential of agriculture for the last 36 years, the lives of more than 3 million people have been transformed through nearly 300 programs in more than 80 countries.
Project Description: The Safety and Quality Investment in Livestock (USDA Food for Progress SQIL) project is an eight-year demand-driven project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that will improve food safety and quality along Georgia’s dairy and beef value chains. From farm-to-fork, SQIL aims to reduce losses, improve food safety and quality, boost competitiveness, productivity and trade within the Georgian dairy and beef market systems. The project achieves these goals through an integrated approach of expanding market access, improving sanitary standards, strengthening postharvest handling and storage, increasing productivity, improving access to finance, and promoting regulatory reforms.
Purpose and Objectives of the Assignment: The USDA Food for Progress SQIL project is seeking a technical expert to provide in-country and remote assistance to a meat processor operating in the Kaspi municipality in Georgia. The meat processor is seeking to launch a new product, beef jerky, utilizing a newly installed Riech Airmaster UK 2500 BE G 350H universal smokehouse. The Consultant will provide support to the meat processor to develop American style beef jerky including recipes, practical demonstrations, and production process flow to optimize yield and time efficiencies.
Consultant Tasks: The Consultant is expected to complete the following tasks:
- Prior to traveling to Georgia, provide remote support to acquaint themselves with the meat processor’s production plans and advise on needed small tools or ingredients to support the production of American style beef jerky. Agree on flavors to be produced based on the availability of ingredients and market demand. Provide assistance to the meat processors in the selection of ingredients, additives, packaging, etc. to support the production of the beef jerky.
- Provide one week of in-country practical assistance at the processor’s facility covering the full-cycle production of U.S. style beef jerky (selection of beef cuts, cutting, marinading, processing, packaging). The result of the assistance should be in the successful testing of the agreed upon beef jerky flavors.
- Review current production equipment and process flow and provide recommendations on improvements and needed small equipment (knifes, jars, shelves, etc.) to optimize yield and return on investment.
- Provide a recommendation for determining and validating the shelf-life of the beef jerky and proper storage conditions.
- Following travel to Georgia, provide remote troubleshooting to support the meat processor as they scale up production of beef jerky.
- Deliverables: Under this scope of work, the Consultant is expected to provide the following:
- 5 days in-country providing on-site technical assistance for meat processor.
- Written recipes, instructions and process flow diagrams with description for the production of U.S. style beef jerky. Recommendation on shelf-life, validation testing parameters and proper storage conditions.
- Written recommendations on proper selection of raw ingredients, marinades, additives, packaging and small equipment to optimize yield.
Requested Skills and Qualifications: The ideal Consultant should present the following skills and qualifications:
- Demonstrated private sector experience in the commercial production of U.S. style beef jerky.
- Willingness to travel to regional areas of Georgia.
- Prior experience working with similar equipment to that available at the beneficiary’s facility would be an advantage.
- Prior experience working in an emerging country context would be an advantage.
Evaluation Criteria: All received complete applications will be evaluated against the following criteria:
- Professional experience in relation to the Scope of Work and the Requested Skills and Qualifications (65%)
- Cost competitiveness and reasonableness of proposed fee (35%)
Duration of Consultancy: Remote support is expected to begin in May, with travel to Georgia for one week in June or July. Travel and accommodation arrangements will be made by Land O’Lakes Venture37 in accordance with established USDA regulations. Following travel, the Consultant shall be available to provide remote troubleshooting assistance for a period of one month.
Application Instructions: Interested and qualified applicants should submit the following documents no later than April 18, 2025.
- CV that details their experience in relation to the scope of work and requested qualifications.
- Cover letter which includes their availability to travel to Georgia and proposed daily fee.