On March 7th, the Governments of the United States and Chile, represented by the USAID and AGCI, signed a statement of intent in triangular technical cooperation with Honduras. Jorge Lobo, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Honduras, James Watson, director of USAID, and Jorge Daccarett, Executive Director of AGCI endorsed the agreement.
Honduras, represented by the SAG, expressed interest in strengthening its system of inspection and certification for agricultural exports and, especially, the management and procedures conducted by the SENASA and the private sector.
This agreement will result in a project to design and implement a public and private system of phytosanitary inspection and certification of food safety for agricultural exports. Chile’s Agricultural and Livestock Service and the Chilean Exporters Association will support the initiative. For its part, the United States will participate in the project through the Department of Agriculture (USDA). The project will run between 2014 and 2015, and will include technical assistance missions in Honduras and internships in Chile.
SENASA aims to make the national agricultural production competitive, sustainable and capable of being inserted into the international economy. To do this, they plan to respond to the needs of the domestic market and integrate a human, social and environmental development system, based on self-management, to their production.
Accessing a reliable and sustainable inspection system will allow other aspects of food production to progress, such as verification of food safety in fields, processing plants, storage and distribution facilities and the use of pesticides, among others.
Source: Sag.cl