Senior Manager, Sourcing & Farmer Engagement at TUME Middle Africa Consulting Limited

Job Description

TUME Middle Africa Consulting is a business advisory service offering support to Companies and business professionals who want to build their brands and markets in Africa. TUME works with selected independent professional partners to merge global expertise with local knowledge and deliver outstanding, actionable solutions. Engaging TUME will strengthen your professional capability significantly and help shape your growth.

GENERAL JOB DESCRIPTION

The positions key responsibilities are:

Create and implement innovative, cost-effective international sourcing strategies incorporating the growing complexities and challenges within the industry. Achieve quality and volume sourcing targets for organic and convention / conversion coconuts. Engage with, build and establish sustained, loyal relationships with farmers, Village Buying Agents and brokers in the counties of operation on behalf of the business. Manage the sourcing process and supply chain effectively and efficiently – within budget and policies of the company. Support the Internal Control Systems (ICS) department to achieve and maintain all certifications, particularly Organic certification. Ensuring zero non-compliance to the certification standards.

SPECIFIC JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Sourcing & Farmer Engagement Manager will be responsible and accountable for the following Core job elements:

Develop a strong understanding of the market and monitor competitive factors and risks. Understand the potential supply base and track the market and price trends. Refine the company’s dynamic pricing model for farmers, Village Buying Agents and brokers, including validation of parameters, assumptions and relationships between these and the recommended price. Design optimal logistics structure to support sourcing initiatives. Develop total landed coconut cost models to monitor spend and derive relevant insights to support sourcing strategies and decisions. Develop a comprehensive sourcing plan for organic and conversion farmers to meet volume and quality targets. Negotiate prices and terms and conditions with farmers, farmer groups and suppliers and ensure that such negotiations are properly contracted, documented, and filed. Develop a performance review system to measure volume capture from organic and conversion farmers YoY and sustained engagement from existing and new farmer groups. Meet with farmers to discuss performance metrics, provide performance feedback and forecasts to identify any deviations at an early stage. Ensure timely and effective implementation of remedial actions. Actively engage into networking activities to leverage coconut sourcing knowledge and opportunities for the company: peers, professional associations, NGO’s, Government and local authorities, suppliers, etc. Execute all certification programs, consistent with the organizational strategic plan and compliant with Ecocert, USDA organic standards and or the standards of other applicable accreditation bodies. Develop and implement a loyalty program for specific farmer segments, starting with the currently established farmer groups. Provide input to the seedling program to target distribution efforts for farmer groups that have potential for increased volume share capture. Oversee internal control systems established and liaise with the ICS Manager to make improvements needed, specifically on ensuring zero non-compliance to the certification standards.

EDUCATIONAL & COLLATERAL REQUREMENTS:

Bachelor’s degree in Procurement, Supply Chain, agronomy or a relevant business field with ten or more years’ experience sourcing and specifically managing performance & productivity of farmer organizations. Knowledge or and experience in coconut purchasing is an added advantage. Excellent understanding of farmer organizations, sourcing and procurement techniques as well as dexterity in ‘reading’ the market. Understands international certifications and how to practically manage them. Ability to effectively communicate with farmers and management clearly, accurately and articulate the company’s vision and get farmer buy-in. Self-starter. Result-oriented with strong analytical, and outstanding strategic, supervisory, leadership, interpersonal, mentoring, negotiation, decision making, communication and organization skills. IT Skills: MS Office particularly Word, excel and PowerPoint