Asean will become a new food factory for the European Union and global market, replacing China and Japan after mounting natural disasters in those countries, if it can develop safety standards to meet consumer demand.
Asean will become a new food factory for the European Union and global market, replacing China and Japan after mounting natural disasters in those countries, if it can develop safety standards to meet consumer demand.
Antonio Berenguer, head of trade and economic affairs for the European Union Delegation to Bangkok, said yesterday that as Asean was becoming one of the major food suppliers to the world market, the development of food safety management is needed to ensure sustainable export growth.
For in-stance, Thai poultry or vegetables will not face difficulties in accessing the EU or other markets if the country has well-organised food safety management, he said.
Patrick Deboyser, adviser to the director-general for health and consumers of the European Commission, said several natural crises, such as the bird-flu outbreak and the tsunami, had affected food safety.
However, every crisis did not end as a disaster. What importers and exporters must do is to be well prepared to ensure food safety management.
To increase safety standards amid rising concerns over natural disasters, the European Commission is holding a workshop for 60 officials from the 10 Asean countries on food safety crisis management in Bangkok.
The commision’s workshop started yesterday and is to end tomorrow.
Sakchai Sriboonsue, secretary-general of the Agriculture Ministry’s National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards, said natural disasters were not only related to food security, but also food safety and disease. Asean is also at risk of being affected by natural disasters.
Asean, which is one of the world’s major food suppliers, needs to do more on tightening cooperation on food safety as well as learning more about international standards from the EU, he said.
After the EU banned imports of some foods from Thailand for several months, the Kingdom is expected to re-export 16 types of vegetables in five categories to Europe this year by developing food safety standards from farming to packaging.
Thailand is expected to re-export fresh chicken to the EU soon after the EU lifted its measures protecting against avian influenza, since the disease has not been reported in the Kingdom for three years.
Salvatore Magazzu, an executive at the Agency for Health and Consumers to the EC, said the bloc was considering removing or reducing its ban on Thai chicken.
The EU is considering Thai-land’s request to allow fresh-chicken shipments to the market. There is a good possibility for Thai chicken to be re-exported to the EU, he said.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/05/25/business/EU-challenge-Asean-on-food-safety-30156155.html
