The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently invited offers to sell significant quantities of fresh oranges for use in the National School Lunch Program and other federal food and nutrition assistance programs. Deliveries of various sizes to several states are to be made at different dates between Jan. 2, 2023, and March 29, 2023.
The contract specialist handling this purchase will be Nicholas Wiber. The contract officer handling this purchase will be Kyla Stoufer. The specialist should be contacted first. See the full USDA invitation here.
Every bidder must include a letter of support with their bid from all current and approved suppliers. Each letter of support is only good for one solicitation. A new letter of support will be required for every
solicitation, from every supplier. For a new-to-USDA contractor and existing contractors who are bidding on new products, a probationary period may be implemented in which awards are limited to 10 truckloads per product.
Compliance with USDA Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Handling Practices (GHP) is necessary to meet the minimum requirement to be deemed responsive. Brokers are exempt from the USDA GAP/GHP requirements themselves, but suppliers/subcontractors performing under the contract shall have the applicable USDA GAP/GHP certification(s).
Offers must be submitted electronically via the Web-Based Supply Chain Management System (WBSCM). Offers submitted by any means other than WBSCM will be deemed nonresponsive.
Offerors are cautioned to bid only quantities they can reasonably expect to produce and deliver.
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture