Over 1300 professionals from the private and public sectors in the region have been trained in agricultural health and food safety.
This announcement came from Katja Svensson, the programme manager of the Regional and Trade Section and Delegate of the European Union (EU) to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean States, OECS and CARICOM/CARIFORUM during the opening ceremony of the National and Regional Coordination Mechanisms for Agricultural Health and Food Safety Systems for CARIFORUM Countries Workshop at the Accra Beach Hotel and Spa yesterday morning. Svensson reported this training was based on the efforts of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
She went on to explain that the SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures) Project is a regional project that the EU has funded under the 10th EDF (European Development Fund) and the main objective had been to support CARIFORUM states in finding sanitary measures in regards to agriculture and food safety. She revealed that this sector is considered important in the EU and divulged that they provided $11.7 million Euros to the cause since its implementation in October 2013. She announced that the ambitions project which discussed legislation, coordination and capacity building in the field of agricultural health and food safety, was set to run for a few more months with its conclusion March 2017.
The EU Delegate explained that the project was set to have positive effects on everyday life as food safety and plant and animal health are all issues that impact our families and communities and congratulated persons present for having chosen a profession where they could contribute to this important sector.
Meanwhile Dr. Robert Ahern, Head of the Agricultural Health and Food Safety at IICA, noted that he believed it was important to also discuss, over the course of the two-day workshop, aspects of sustainability of the project.
He urged them to consider discussing this sustainability as opposed to focussing on the things that they may not and do not have, and hopefully to focus on what resources they do have and figure out ways to inexpensively carryout all the measures that they would have discussed and have the capacity to do. (CLF)
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