ANNEX 4

OPENING REMARKS
Hartwig de Haen
Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Department
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Excellencies, honourable guests, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.

Your Excellency, Mr Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe,

Your Excellencies Dr Parirenyatwa, Ministry of Health and Child Welfare of Zimbabwe, and Mr Made, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Zimbabwe,

Your Excellencies, Ministers from various countries of the Africa region,

Distinguished Ambassadors and representatives of the Diplomatic Corps,

Dear colleagues from WHO and other UN agencies;

Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen!

It is my pleasure to welcome you on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to the FAO/WHO Regional Conference on Food Safety for Africa. This conference is part of a series of regional conferences that FAO and WHO are convening to provide a forum where food safety officials from the region can get come together to share information and experiences on how the safety of foods may be improved. FAO is grateful to the Government of Zimbabwe for hosting this conference and I thank the organizing committee for the efforts made to make this a successful event.

The importance of food safety

The issue that has brought us together here, food safety is of critical importance to Africa. Let me just mention four reasons:

• First, food safety is a critical element of food security. More than one third of the African population suffers from chronic undernourishment. Moreoever, FAO’s latest Africa Report lists 24 sub-Saharan African countries in which people face food emergencies. X # of people in Africa are considered to be food insecure, some of which may be due to a lack of food safety controls.For many of these food insecure people, the problem is not just the lack of food, but also the lack of safety of the food they eat and the water they drink.

• Secondly, lack of food safety has a high cost. Each outbreak of food-borne illness causes not only human suffering, but also direct and indirect costs. In developed countries, these costs amount to US$100/person/year on average. They and t could be even greater in developing countries, and they include the loss of lives. For Africa, it is estimated that 800,000 children in Africa die each year from diarrhea and dehydration. 70 % of the cases are likely caused by unsafe food.

• Thirdly, improving food safety has the added advantage that it helps reduce food losses or even avoid them. In short, improved safety of food can contribute to increased availability of food.

• Finally, greater food safety is important for both exports and imports. For example, Kenya was able to increase its exports of Nile perch to the EU more than five-fold, by implementing a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system to improve the hygiene of fish processing. It was predicted that failure to meet the food safety requirements of the 2001 EU aflatoxin standard would lead to a decrease in the value of African exports of cereals, dried fruits and nuts to the EU by 64 percent or US$670 million. And proper import inspection is needed to avoid that contaminated foods reach consumers in importing African countries.

Challenges to improving food safety

Despite increased global knowledge and availability of advanced tools and approaches, many challenges remain technologies to improving food safety in the region. Let me mention some:

1. The ability of many countries to monitor food-borne diseases and to implement food safety measures is inadequate. A number of countries even lack the basic infrastructure such as regular access to electricity, safe water, transportation and storage. They need capacity building in food safety.

2. However, capacity building efforts in the region are often lacking or fragmented. Where donors provide technical assistance, their interventions may not be well coordinated.

3. Many national borders are large and basically unchecked, allowing movements of substandard food.

4. Foods crossing the often long national borders are commonly unchecked. As a result, sub-standard foods cross the borders. The challenge is to improve subregional cooperation to ensure the safety of food in transit.

5. There is an increasing burden on the food supply in locations with high population density. This trend is growing with rapid urbanization and with at times massive population movements following emergencies. Special measures are needed to ensure the safety of foods in these locations. For example there is a need to improve the safety of street foods.

6. The extreme weather conditions that often affect the region further strain food control systems. Crops grown and stored under such conditions are more susceptible to mycotoxin contamination. As was reported, more than 100 people died in one country in mid-2004, as a result of consuming maize that was heavily contaminated by aflatoxins.

Many of these issues will be addressed in the plenary and working group sessions, the side events, and in informal discussions held at this Conference this week. We encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities to learn more about these important subjects and to share your experiences with others so they may also benefit.

Strategic actions needed to ensure food safety

In light of these many challenges to improving food safety, a strategic plan of action is needed for the African region. The draft version of such a plan will be discussed and hopefully adopted during this conference. Once adopted, we hope donors will also support it.

This draft plan foresees measures at all levels ranging from legislation to inspection services, surveillance and communication. While the main responsibility for action lies with governments, civil society and the private sector at national level, certain measures are better taken at subregional and regional levels.

The aim of the Plan is to improve the safety of food consumed by the Africans and also to enable African exporters to better comply with the standards existing in countries to which food is to be exported.

FAO promotes the utilization of a food chain approach to food safety. The application of good agricultural practices at the primary production level, as well as good practices throughout the chain, should improve the safety of food products.

Practical actions by FAO and partners to promote food safety

FAO is already working with other partners to implement practical actions to promote food safety in the region and throughout the world. These include:

1. Capacity and technical assistance. For instance, building on past actions, FAO is currently supporting three regional and 14 national projects, with several others under development.

2. FAO is working with WHO, OIE and the World Bank in the Standard and Trade Development Facility, housed in WTO and aiming to mobilize and coordinate support for capacity building in the areas of food safety, plant and animal health.

3. FAO and WHO are also managing a Trust Fund for Participation in Codex.

4. FAO, together with WHO, provide expert scientific advice on food safety risks to members of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

5. Holding of expert consultations (often with WHO) on open issues. Recent examples include Microbial Risk Assessments, Acrylamide in foods, and the Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified foods.

6. FAO, with other agencies, has developed the International Portal on Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health, which offers national governments and trading partners’ access to relevant official information.

Conclusion

Many countries in Africa have made great progress in improving their food safety systems and increasing the competitiveness of their food products on the international market. These efforts need to be strengthened and expanded.

The region has great potential for producing high quality food products for both domestic consumption and export around the world. However, countries must give higher priority for food safety, not only to enable the region to further improve its trading opportunities, but also to protect the health of their own consumers domestically.

Regional cooperation and information exchange at all levels can provide a means to advance this goal. FAO and WHO have jointly convened this Regional Conference on Food Safety for Africa for exactly these purposes.

We in FAO stand ready to assist your countries in the efforts to strengthen capacity to better regulate and ensure the safety of food for all your citizens.