Rural decentralised washed coffee from Sierra Leone Note: This project has been cancelled, because the goals of the project could not be achieved, due to several obstacles related to the Sierra Leonean coffee sector and the difficult investment climate in the country.Dutch applicant and coffee trader G. Bijdendijk B.V. and local partner Freetown Coffee KPC Ltd, which shareholders are experienced cocoa traders, will start a new joint venture which will process ripe red (Robusta) coffee berries as green washed coffee in six decentralised processing units in Kailahun, located in the eastern part of Sierra Leone. The joint venture will train and cooperate with 10,000 supplying individual growers (mostly grouped in small farmer groups). The joint venture will sell the fully processed beans to applicant G. Bijdendijk B.V.. The product will be, UTZ certified, green washed Sierra Leonean Robusta coffee which can be used to replace a part of the more expensive Arabica coffee in popular coffee blends or which can be sold as single origin coffee. Coffee was and still could be an important crop to improve living conditions of thousands of smallholders. Quality tests of G. Bijdendijk B.V. were very supportive and enough reason for this innovative project as there is no company in Sierra Leone at the moment in any kind of coffee processing or value adding activities. In total 51 new staff will be employed under fixed contracts.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)The partners intend to certify around 10,000 farmers. UTZ certification will guarantee training on good Agricultural practices, no use of child or forced labour and good environmental practices.Impact•	Employment and working conditionsIn total 51 new staff will be employed under fixed contracts with living wages which are at least 56 times higher than the Sierra Leonean minimum wage (which is very low at 3.56 euro per month). About a third of the staff is women. Besides the salary the project will offer fringe benefits like: health and other insurance (e.g. a disability insurance); staff will get paid on sick leave; a staff pension scheme; travel costs compensation; extra time will be rewarded; work clothing free of charge; employees will have a voice in the organisation and participation in the social dialog. These benefits are consistently better than what is legally required in Sierra Leone.•	Innovation / Transfer of knowledgeThere is currently no company in Sierra Leone involved in washed coffee processing. Also, there is no company in Sierra Leone involved in any export coffee processing activities whatsoever. Only a few traders are active in the trade of coffee.•	Chain effectsImpact on local suppliersAbout 30 plus long-term local input and service suppliers are expected to benefit: these include SME for packaging materials, for providing (organic) farming inputs, farming tools and materials (particularly for upgrading coffee), local transporters.The farmers will receive a good price for their coffee (between 50% to 60% of FOB price while at the moment they receive 45% to 50%).Impact on local customers or consumersWith respect to the cooperation with over 10,000 farmers: they will be trained 9 days during the project period, resulting in an additional 90,000 training days. The new joint venture will actively try to promote social inclusion by including disadvantaged individuals as staff and as outgrowers and they will be actively assisted to be able to participate in the programme during as well as after the pilot. The new joint venture will be negotiating bulk prices for agro inputs from contractors to reduce prices for their outgrowers. The new joint venture will assist outgrowers to purchase agricultural machinery to enable more efficient mechanised production and the new joint venture will assist outgrowers to obtain micro credit to purchase agricultural inputs to enable more efficient production.•	Impact on the sectorThe project may lead to a coffee board “alike” structure. Further collaboration with R&D on production increase and quality increase as well as collaboration with NGOs on small-scale farmer training and access and control over inputs is foreseen. A number of these activities are already ongoing for cocoa, thus providing options for coffee inclusion.•	EnvironmentThe wastewater will be reprocessed along with the pulp waste as compost and will be returned to the farmers. The amount of water used in processing can vary, but most often is used in a 1 to 1 ratio.The project will be using Good Agricultural Practices (for UTZ certification) or organic production methods, excluding harmful production methods.•	Impact on waterThe project uses modern processing technologies which reduce the water requirement significantly, particularly when compared to traditional coffee washing stations. Water used in the process will be recycled and reused as much as possible. After final use in the washing process, water will be channelled to the nurseries (adding nutrients at the same time) and to adjacent farms using simple irrigation channels. Although water is not a limiting factor in Kailahun District, the project tries to save water as much as possible. To start a joint venture in Sierra Leone that will operate six de-central washing stations and one central warehouse for final processing and storage of UTZ certified green washed Robusta coffee, which will cooperate with 10,000 trained smallholder-suppli