The Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) was launched on March 18, 2010 in Paramaribo, Suriname.
CAHFSA will be responsible for developing policies to improve health and safety practices in agriculture and food production in the region, as well as for formulating standards for trade in agricultural practices.
At the launch, Secretary-General of CARICOM, His Excellency Edwin Carrington said:
I cannot over-emphasise that food safety and agricultural health risk management should be considered as a core competence in the competitiveness of our countries, especially in the context of trade in high-value food products. SPS-related challenges should therefore be addressed within the broader context of competitiveness, rather than through isolated interventions. We must adopt a production-to-consumption, or as it is usually described as a ‘farm-to-table’ perspective, requiring traceability of all inputs in the food production chain.
The launch of CAHFSA was followed, on March 19, by a special meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture, at which was discussed, among other matters, the resuscitation of agriculture in Haiti.
[Photo: Taran Rampersad at Flickr]
