(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The agency upon which the Region will depend to strengthen agricultural health and food safety and ensure the highest standards for trade in agricultural products, was launched Thursday afternoon in Paramaribo, Suriname.
The Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) was inaugurated at an elaborate ceremony on the grounds of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries in Paramaribo. CAHFSA will be housed in that compound in a spanking new building that caters for a staff of about nine persons.
CAHFSA was given the green light last week in Roseau, Dominica, at the Twenty-First Inter-sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government.
His Excellency Drs. Ronald Venetiaan, President of Suriname, the Hon. Kermechand Raghoebarsing, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries of Suriname and His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) officiated at the ceremony which featured the signing of the CAHFSA Headquarters Agreement, the opening of an integrated laboratory, the unveiling of the CAHFSA plaque, a mini fair of products and a reception and cultural programme.
President Venetiaan told the gathering that there was need for clear rules and harmonisation in the Region and a complete safety system in agriculture.
Recent diseases that posed threats to the agricultural sector such as the H1N1, Bird Flu and BSE (Mad Cow disease) made the Region painfully aware of the need for food standards, he said.
Investment in food safety, President Venetiaan said, would be of strategic importance in keeping the Region’s export markets open.
He added that the total value chain must be assessed when considering safety of food and that producers and food handlers were all participants in the food safety quest.
While President Venetiaan indicated that there were budgetary issued still to be addressed, he called on Member States of CARICOM to use the opportunity provided by CAHFSA towards economic development and further integration.
Secretary-General Carrington said the inauguration of the Agency marked a transformation from an entity on paper, to one of bricks, mortar and policy for action.
Policy-makers, laboratory and inspection officials, scientists and researchers now had to define the right mix of legislative, technical, administrative and financial measures to safeguard the Community’s borders from the introduction and spread of pests and diseases, while ensuring that the agricultural commodities that were produced, consumed and traded, were safe for human consumption, the Secretary-General said.
CAHFSA’s operations, he pointed out, were vital to fulfilling the provisions of the Treaty of Chaguaramas which called for the establishment of effective Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary regime and for the harmonization of laws, administrative practices and procedures in respect of agriculture. He noted that the Jagdeo Initiative had identified the current agricultural health and food safety system as a key binding constraint to the further development of the Region’s agricultural sector.
“Undoubtedly therefore, this Agency will undergird the drive towards greater Community trade in food and agricultural products giving impetus to the CSME.
“In particular, in the context of increasing the Region’s share of the global trade in agricultural products and the dearth of national capacity in agricultural health and food safety, CAHFSA’s role assumes even greater significance,” the Secretary-General said at the launching.
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.
“Let us therefore buckle down to the task of making CAHFSA an institution of which we can be proud and which can be a shining light along the path of progress in keeping with the Community’s development vision. If we are to achieve the Community for All that we seek, we must bear in mind the Nassau Declaration’s theme, the Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region and a basic element of that is food which is safe and nutritious. Put simply, this is what we expect CAHFSA to lead the Caribbean Community in achieving,” the Secretary-General charged.
The inauguration was held during a week of events in Suriname devoted to agriculture including a seminar on CAHFSA, a meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture.
