Draft law reforms ‘will open door to food exports’

Barbados will soon be in a position to export food to previously inaccessible, lucrative markets after making major changes to the laws governing plant and animal health and food safety, a Government animal health official said Monday.

Senior Veterinary Officer in the Ministry of Health Dr Mark Trotman said three pieces of draft legislation – the Food Safety and Quality Bill, the Animal Health and Veterinary Health Bill and the Plant Protection Bill – would replace outdated laws that prevented the island from exporting to several countries.

He told a virtual meeting on changes to Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) legislation that the new measures would greatly improve the country’s food safety and food security laws.

“This is not the end-all,” said Dr Trotman. “A lot of work is still being done and is actively being done. Legislation is a cornerstone of the work that we are doing in agriculture, health, food safety and food security.

“But one of the most important facets of the country’s ability to effectively access foreign markets and to export goods is really grounded on having robust legislation on which we can provide the necessary reassurances to our trading partners that we can provide control over our systems and so for many years we have been struggling with the fact that there are a number of many lucrative markets that we cannot reach for various reasons.

“One of the most important ones is that we do not have the appropriate legislation in place to satisfy the demands of our importing countries, so that’s one of the most critical things that we will be able to have the appropriate legislation to build on developing all of the mechanisms we need to export products out of the country.”

Head of Government Analytical Services Beverley Wood, who chairs an inter-ministerial working group on agriculture, health and food control systems,  explained that stakeholder meetings are still being held on the draft legislation. She said she hoped those meetings would be finished within the next two weeks.

Wood said the new legislation was critical as it would replace outdated pieces of law that were hampering development.

“I think they are very important because the legislation that we have is dated back 1958, in some cases 1961,” said Wood. “The most current of the three pieces is the Plant Protection Act; we have a Plant Protection Act 2007 or 2008. What these pieces of legislation have done is to bring our acts within the modern era.

“So before we had a Food Hygiene Regulations under a Health Services Act, which means that is a secondary piece of legislation and the overarching Health Services Act manages that, so we are making the Food Safety and Quality Bill when it is passed a primary piece of legislation which governs food safety and quality in Barbados and our Animal Health and Veterinary Health Act when it is passed is an overarching act.

“We have a number of bits of pieces of legislation that manages many sectors of animal health but now you are bringing it all together and you are adding new pieces that were not considered at the time when those pieces were managed.

“Having these three pieces of legislation ensures we will be able to show other persons that our legislation and the quality of food that we consume is safe, that we are making sure all the gaps where pests and diseases may be able to enter through plants and animals are covered, so we’re just tightening up our system and giving the various entities the legal authority to do some of the things that they do now.” (RB)