The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) came together to train 59 trainers from Peru and Colombia about the new requirements for processed food exports established by the United States government.
The training empowers them to train exporters, producers, academics and officials in preventive controls for food for humans. The commitment of the people trained is to replicate the knowledge and promote the understanding of the new demands among the sector.
"Training on this issue is fundamental for the export sector, we want to make sure that the information is flowing and we hope to contribute to eliminating the doubts that this process could generate," said Ana Marisa Cordero, a specialist in Food Safety and Health.
According to Cordero, this type of initiative meets the objective of providing technical assistance and strengthening capacities so that the countries can comply with US regulations. It also allows the training of trainers at a minimal cost.
The trainings are part of the Food Safety and Agricultural Sustainability (FAST) program, which is implemented by IICA and the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service. The program aims to strengthen capacities in Central American, South American, and Caribbean countries to support the export of food to the United States and promote compliance with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.
The program now includes 204 trained professionals from the public, private, and academic sectors in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Haiti, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, and Colombia.
The initiative still needs to be implemented in Paraguay, where it is scheduled for September. Starting in the second half of the year, the development of capacities to meet the requirements of the standard for fresh agricultural products will begin.
Source: agraria.pe