Southern African international food standards programme launched

The British government is funding a R56-million ($770,000) Southern African regional standards programme to help producers meet the strict food standard requirements increasingly being demanded worldwide. The Department for International Development's South Africa office has awarded ComMark Trust a four-year contract to demonstrate how these standards constraints can be overcome and exports increased, thus creating jobs.

ComMark Trust has also been tasked with coming up with ideas to make trade work for the poor in Southern Africa. The Southern African regional standards programme is designed to address constraints experienced by agricultural producers and food processors in gaining market access owing to stringent product standard requirements.

ComMark Trust official Norma Tregurtha explained that addressing infrastructural constraints is one component of the programme. "Setting up laboratories, training government personnel and identifying legislative gaps are the kinds of activities that will be funded over the next four years," she said.

Also part of the standards programme is the supermarkets innovation fund. It is open to producer groups, private firms, industry associations and agencies active in the agriculture and food-processing sectors facing specific certification or agricultural standards issues that prevent them from supplying regional and international markets.

Tregurtha points out that the trade debate around tariffs that restrict access to developed countries is not enough. There are barriers such as grades and standards that are inhibiting trade. There is also strong lobbying from European farmers for the continuation of domestic subsidies and this effectively discriminates against African products.

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