THE Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) is now operational. Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lindley Collins, was appointed recently, Deputy Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassador, Dr. Manorma Soeknandan announced last Wednesday.

“We trust that we will soon be able to make more progress with the appointment of additional core staff,” Ambassador Soeknandan said at the formal opening ceremony of the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) 2014 in Paramaribo, Suriname, a press release stated.
CAHFSA, which is based in Suriname, was launched in March 2010. The Agency was approved in Roseau, Dominica, at the Twenty-First Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government. CAHFSA’s operations are vital to fulfilling the provisions of the Treaty of Chaguaramas which call for the establishment of an effective Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) regime and for the harmonisation of laws, administrative practices and procedures in respect of agriculture. The Regional Transformation Programme for Agriculture, usually referred to as the Jagdeo Initiative, has identified the current agricultural health and food safety system as a key binding constraint to the further development of the Region’s agricultural sector.
Among CAHFSA’s tasks are developing technical measures and protocols required to achieve SPS certification for agricultural trade.
CAHFSA will also devise arrangements to reduce the use of SPS measures as non-tariff barriers, including undue administrative delays in the clearance of perishable agricultural goods as restrictions to agricultural trade, the release concluded.