Hop “Early-Line” Evaluation Germplasm (Corvallis, OR)

Hop “Early-Line” Evaluation Germplasm (Corvallis, OR)

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE ONLY. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. This Sources Sought is issued for information and planning purposes only as part of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) market research and does not itself constitute a Request For Proposal (RFP). The Government does NOT intend to make an award based on responses to this inquiry.

The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified sources; Small Businesses; HUBZone small business; service-disabled, veteran-owned small business; 8(a) small business; veteran-owned small business; woman-owned small business; or small disadvantaged businesses; Responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. After review of the responses to this notice, a solicitation announcement may be published. All interested offerors are requested to respond to this notice but are required to respond to the official solicitation announcement in order to be awarded the contract.

BACKGROUND: The qualifying NAICS code for this requirement is 111998 All Other Miscellaneous Crop Farming. USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Pacific West Area (PWA) Forage Seed and Cereal Research Unit located at Corvallis, OR requires Hop “Early-Line” Evaluation Germplasm.

This project will involve planting, germination, screening and selection of resistant hop germplasm offspring from seed to whole plants. Specific temperature requirements for disease screening, periodic trimming of plants under consultation with USDA staff, daily watering and regular fertilizer applications will be required. Performance location will be at the contractor's facility. USDA staff will enter the contractor's facility and will inoculate plants with powdery mildew disease. The powdery mildew disease is an obligate pathogen and its primary host plant is hops and is not a disease threat to any other plant species.

SEE ATTACHED DRAFT PROJECT SCOPE FOR A FULL DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENTS.

INSTRUCTIONS: RESPONSES MUST INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

Company Name, Address, Point of Contact (POC) name, email address, and phone number. Business Size with Economic Status, and Unique Entity ID No. (a) Indicate whether your business is large or small (b) If small, indicate if your firm qualifies as a small, or small disadvantages business (c) If disadvantaged, specify under which disadvantaged group and if your firm is certified under Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act (d) Indicate if your firm is a certified Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) or Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) (e) State whether your firm is registered with the System for Award Management (SAM) at http://www.sam.gov

Capabilities Statement. Indicate whether you hold a Federal-Supply-Schedule contract or other available procurement vehicle that covers this type of request. If so, please provide the Schedule contract number, Product name(s), number(s), delivery time after receipt of order, and pricing.

Respondents must provide, as part of their response, a capability statement that clearly identifies information regarding: (a) staff expertise, availability, experience, and formal and other training; (b) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (c) prior completed projects of similar nature; (d) corporate experience and/or management capability; and (e) examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related or relevant information.

The response is limited to ten (10) pages.  The 10-page limit does not include the cover page, executive summary, or references, which may be included but is not required. The government requests that no proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information be included in the response.

Any vendor responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine their qualifications to perform the work.  Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.  All information submitted in response to this announcement is voluntary, and the Government will not pay for information requested nor will it compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the Government.

All responses to this Sources Sought Notice must be received by 1/3/2023 to Spencer Hamilton, Contract Specialist, via email at spencer.hamilton@usda.gov