By Staff writer
Since assuming office, the PPP/C Government has been working aggressively alongside officials in the United States to lift the ban placed on Guyana’s catfish exports since September 2017. The ban was imposed since the country fell short of the documentation needed for qualify verification by the US Food and Safety Inspection Services (FSIS).
Providing an update recently on how these efforts are progressing, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustpha said, already, several protocols have been satisfied.
The parliamentarian, who has served the sector for more than three decades, said, “We are working very aggressively to resume the exportation of catfish to the United States. So far, we’ve met most of the protocols in terms of the Fisheries Regulation. We’ve updated it and very shortly that will be published in the Official Gazette.”
Speaking recently to participants of a five-day workshop hosted by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) and World Health Organization’s (WHO) for the assessment of the Guyana national food control systems, Mustapha said the Environmental Protection Agency is presently working with other stakeholders to conduct testing of the waters where these fish are being harvested.
He said too that the inspection manual is almost completed in terms of being updated. “So it’s safe to say that we’ve made significant progress over the last few months to ensure that we are once again in compliance with the established regulations so that our country can once again export these products to North America,” Minister Mustapha said.
The workshop, which will run from January 24 to 28, stems from a prior assessment that identified the need for capacity building to strengthen key areas within Guyana’s current food safety system.
The aim of the workshop is to commence the process of implementing the FAO/WHO assessment tool which seeks to assist countries in assessing the effectiveness of their food control system, regardless of its level of maturity.
The tool proposes a harmonized, objective, and consensual basis to analyze the performance of Guyana’s national food system to identify priority areas of improvement and plan sequential and coordinated activities to reach expected outcomes.
Starting from Monday last, 64 officers from the Guyana Food Safety Authority, the Environmental Health Unit, the Guyana Revenue Authority, the Carnegie School of Home Economics along with other agencies within the Ministry of Agriculture will be provided with training kits and technical advice from international experts who will lead the training sessions on how to conduct a food control assessment and analyze the effectiveness of the safety control system in Guyana.
After the training, participants will conduct the assessment with the guidance of an FAO expert and led by the Food Safety Authority. The assessment will focus on the safety of the food that comes to the consumer from producers, importers, processors, farmers, fisherfolk, etc. They will examine the extent to which the current food safety processes are working and help us look for gaps and weaknesses and identify measures for improvement.
The results from the assessment will then be developed into a strategic plan to systematically and continuously upgrade the food safety system.
