In The News

Dominican Republic awaits word on vegetable pre-clearance program

May 24, 2023

Growers and shippers in the Dominican Republic are waiting optimistically an action plan to help expand the USDA APHIS pre-clearance program and allow the country to ship additional commodities. Via the USDA-funded Trade Safe project implemented by IESC, the final approval is on a new pre-clearance program for tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. The initiative stems from the five-year, $13.7 million USDA Food for Progress-funded Trade Safe (TraSa)…

February 10, 2023

The Pekoe Trail is a 22-day, 200-mile network of hiking trails through the Sri Lankan tea country funded by the EU and USAID Tourism Resilience Project, implemented by IESC.

The aim is to develop, maintain, and curate a trail that promotes the diverse cultural and natural heritage of the Sri Lankan Tea Country and encourage its preservation ultimately benefiting local communities. The trail provides a world-class experience for both long…

February 10, 2023

On 27 January, ultramarathon trail runner Hyun Chang Chung crossed the finish line at the Ceylon Tea Museum in Hanthana, cheered on by new fans from the surrounding local community and his elated family. He had just achieved the superhuman feat of becoming the first person to run the entire 300 km length of The Pekoe Trail non-stop in two and half days.

The Pekoe Trail is designed as a 22-day walk from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya via Ella,…

October 26, 2022

Funded by a US$ 1.3 million grant from the Yum! Brands Foundation, the vocational training kitchen initiative titled ‘An Equal Slice for Everyone’ is the first in a series implemented through a partnership between USAID’s Youth Employment and Business Start-Up activity, YouLead; Gamma Pizzakraft Lanka, the owner of the Pizza Hut franchise in Sri Lanka; and the Sevalanka Foundation.

Through YouLead, USAID will assist in the development of…

August 1, 2022

A workshop was held on July 26 in Hanoi to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through digital transformation and financial access. The event was co-organized by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) along with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Experts maintained that Vietnamese firms, especially SMEs, have encountered numerous difficulties in post-pandemic recovery, and digital…

June 14, 2022

On June 13, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung attended the signing ceremony for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Sri Lankan Department of Agriculture, for a $27 million project that aims to double the milk production of Sri Lankan dairy farmers participating in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Food for Progress” initiative.

In close partnership with the Government of Sri Lanka, the project began in late 2017 and…