From left: Basil Mathioudakis, Food Legislation and Nutrition Consultant; Director General of CARIFORUM, Percival Marie; Barbados’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joy St. John; EU Ambassador, Daniela Tramacere; Ena Harvey, Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) representative for Barbados; and Dr. Salvador Fernandez, IICA’s Director of Technical Co-operation, after the closing of the SPS Symposium.
CARIFORUM committed to SPS project
Although February 23 and 24 marked the end of the conference and technical symposium for the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) project, the work on the issues that were raised will continue within the region.
Speaking during the closing ceremony that was held at the Accra Beach Resort and Spa recently, Director General of CARIFORUM, Percival Marie, expressed the importance of the conference and affirmed that CARIFORUM will remain committed to seeking additional resources towards the continuation of the efforts that began at the start of the project.
He noted that the conference generated a great deal of “strong commitments” and promises to help the project’s cause. He reminded that the main objective was finding sanitary measures with regards to agriculture and food safety as well as determine critical factors for CARIFORUM countries to successfully capitalise on international and regional market opportunities. In addition to these promises, he noted that a model legislation was created in four main areas – plant health, animal health, fisheries and food safety; and explained that these model bills are intended to guide CARIFORUM countries in their efforts to strengthen their own regulatory framework.
The conference was considered to be successful as it was reported that over 90 stakeholders, including Government officials, agricultural planners, policy makers, agricultural private sector leaders, civil society leaders and organisation leaders from across CARIFORUM, gathered together for this event. It was described as symbolic due to the cross-sectoral gathering as well as the systematic approach of the project, which ensured that all aspects of the value chain, and everyone’s considerations and advice were taken into account.
In her address, European Union (EU) Ambassador, Daniela Tramacere, spoke on the importance of having SPS measures, not only in the economy but in “raising standards and building capacity on SPS issues, which translate into safer food available to us, our families and our communities”.