By Clifford Stanley
FOOD Industry and food safety officials have validated a report which recommends the need for a national coordinating mechanism for better functioning of the various agencies providing Animal Health and Food Safety (AHFS) services.
They endorsed the report during a recent validation workshop held at the Regency Suites Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown.

The workshop was the final step in a consultation process  between  local officials  and experts attached to the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in execution  of one component of an EU funded  project  aimed at upgrading the AHFS  services and  Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regimes of  CARIFORUM countries so that they can meet the  food safety requirements of international trade .

Participants agreed that for Guyana or any other CARIFORUM State to address their food security concerns and increase their earnings from agricultural and fisheries trade, it is critical for them to develop effective national agricultural and fisheries health and food safety systems.

The programme on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) is one component of the 10th EDF Programme titled “Support to the Forum of Caribbean States in the implementation of the commitments undertaken under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)”.

The overall objective of the 10th EDF Programme is to enhance the competitiveness of CARIFORUM states to maintain and/or increase market access by complying with Europe’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures.

The workshop  on Tuesday  aimed at validation,  by local participants of a draft national report on the status of  coordinating mechanisms in AHFS services  in Guyana;  how these measured up to  an effective  SPS and AHFS  regime  and how they could be improved and enhanced.

The draft country report was presented by World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) expert, Dr Grigoryan Grigor and Mr Gordon Maddan, a lawyer and expert on British Food laws.

The work of Dr Grigor and Mr Maddan on a national coordinating mechanism for AHFS agencies had been commissioned in Guyana and other CARIFORUM States by IICA as part of a much larger SPS project which includes components to develop legislation, protocols, standards, measures and guidelines, as well as national and regional regulatory and industry capacity among these States to meet the SPS requirements of international trade.

The  regional project is being implemented by IICA in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat (CCS), the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and the SPS committee of the Dominican Republic (Comite Nacional para la Aplicacion de Medidas Sanitarias y Fitosanitarias – (CNMSF).

The two experts had visited Guyana in September and had made an assessment of national coordination mechanisms in support of an effective SPS regime and how it could be enhanced.

They had done similar work in the other beneficiary countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago.

Participants at the workshop agreed that an integrated and coordinated AHFS system is vital to protect animal and plant health and ensure high levels of food safety among consumers locally and in food exported to other countries

Participants supported a suggestion that rather than developing new institutions, they work to ensure an effective, well co-ordinated and integrated AHFS sector locally, which should be done by task forces with clearly defined terms of references.

These task forces would analyse options, make fact-based selections, define action plans and work within a framework which ensures that their recommendations become Government policy.

Following intense discussions with participants, Dr Grigor and Mr Maddan assured the participants that they will use the feedback obtained to produce the final report on their assessments and their recommendations for effective coordinating mechanisms for the local agencies involved in the local AHFS sector.

The final recommendations are to be eventually adopted and implemented by Guyana and the other CARIFORUM beneficiary countries of the project.