CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Stakeholders in the Regional agriculture sector are to hold further discussions shortly to flesh out the development and application of a system to monitor and trace agricultural products at every step from field through harvest, storage, ports and supermarkets.
It is one element in the construction of a strong Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regime for the Region. A national traceability system is an essential entry requirement of markets in the USA and Europe. Good food safety and traceability systems are essential to ensure real profits to agricultural producers and to help governments to boost competitiveness and safeguard the health of consumers.
The decision to engage further on establishing national and regional traceability systems was taken on Wednesday evening following a presentation at the Caribbean Community Secretariat by the Government of Haiti which focused on the steps it was taking to comply with its national regulations that come on stream in 2014.
The Hon. Wilson Laleau, Minister of Trade and Industry of Haiti laid out the traceability strategy his country is adopting in monitoring, in the first instance, for coffee and mangoes, two of the agricultural products that Haiti exports. The country hopes that by June next year, it will be able to track the production of vegetables. Some CARICOM Member States have already established traceability systems and others are in the process of doing so.
The traceability system involves producers, private sector and government entities, and utilizes information communication technology that stakeholders are confident will not only ensure a level of efficiency, but will also attract youth to the agriculture sector.
Minister Laleau’s audience included the Hon. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guyana, the Hon. Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Agriculture of Guyana, the Hon Irfaan Ali, Minister of Housing, Water, Trade and Industry of Guyana, CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and representatives of the CARICOM Secretariat and of the private sector of Guyana and Haiti.
Minister Laleau’s presentation was held ahead of an official visit to the Secretariat by His Excellency Michel Martelly, Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM and President of Haiti. Minister LaLeau was accompanied by the Hon. Pierre Casimir, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Haiti, and other Haitian officials.
Haiti raised the matter of food safety and traceability at the recently concluded Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in Port-au-Prince.
Both Minister Ramsammy and Secretary-General LaRocque referred to the timeliness of the presentation. Minister Ramsammy reiterated that such a system was required by some of the Region’s key trading partners including the United States and the European Union. Its development and implementation were imperative, he said. Ambassador LaRocque pointed to the importance of the system in the context of the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA), a regional body whose area of responsibility includes food traceability and SPS.
