As part of a long-term evaluation of the DFID-funded Food Trade East and Southern Africa (FTESA), we evaluated projects that sought to improve trade in staple crops across East Africa. Using a theory-based approach with contribution analysis, we focused on establishing the impact of interventions supporting collective selling through producer groups and strengthening East Africa Community Standards. For example, we looked at FTESA-funded work in Tanzania’s rice sector, where efforts were made to improve farmer cooperatives’ adherence to standards, access to high quality storage and connection to regional markets via an electronic trading platform, ‘G-soko’.