Ministry seeks fungicide alternative

THE MINISTRY of Agriculture has established a task force of technical personnel to identify a suitable alternative to the chemical, Imazalil, the residue of which was found on a recent shipment of yam which was rejected by the United States authorities.

According to Agriculture Minister, Roger Clarke, the setting up of the task force was to ensure there was no recurrence. He was speaking last week during the opening session of a two-day seminar on the implementation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.

A fungicide, Imazalil is not registered in the United States for the post harvest treatment of yams and as such the Ministry is faced with identifying an alternative that is suitable. The aim of the task force the Minister said was to "address this and similar matters".

Earlier this month, Grace, Kennedy disclosed that its export market was being affected by a United States decision to stop accepting the commonly used fungicide on Jamaican grown yams. Company chairman and chief executive officer, Senator Douglas Orane, said the company was working with the US authorities with a view to having the matter resolved.

Meantime, Mr. Clarke has called for a review of the standards being applied by the US in respect to chicken. According to him, "where there is no clear evidence of a risk to health the parties should also consider the need to conduct reciprocal trade so that while Jamaica is happy to buy chicken back and eggs from the US we should also be able to sell our chicken breast or other parts to them".

With respect to SPS standards for foods imported into Jamaica, the Minister said "we are committed to developing WTO compliant systems and standards to address our imports of food products in the interest of ensuring that our own population is healthy".

He explained that Jamaica was placing emphasis on developing national SPS systems and to this end, was working in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank. "We believe this is one of the fundamental components in the general thrust to modernise the agricultural sector as a whole and to make it more competitive in the global economy".

And with responsibility for food safety spread across several ministries and departments, with some amount of duplication, Mr. Clarke said consideration was being given to the establishment of a Jamaican Agricultural Health and Food Safety Authority (JAHFSA). This, he said should eliminate current duplication of functions and strengthen the co-ordination of agricultural health and food safety activities throughout the island.

The JAHFSA's would have the responsibility of addressing the quality and standards of plants, animals, products and by products produced in Jamaica for domestic and international markets as well as the quality and standards of imported germplasm agricultural products and food fibre.

The agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture. Technical assistance was provided by the WTO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

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