EU-Supported Awareness-Raising Campaign on Food Safety Has Been Initiated
/ Agency News
The Association Agreement considers the approximation of Georgian legislation, rules, and procedures to those of the European Union (EU). This also applies to the national legislation on food safety and SPS standards. 170 of 270 EU legislative acts have already been approximated in food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary fields. However, food business operators (FBOs) of various profiles often lack knowledge about the legislation.
To address the challenge and minimise erroneous interpretations, the EU is now supporting a series of awareness-raising meetings with FBOs in 7 regions of Georgia. The campaign is organised by the National Food Agency (NFA) and Czech Development Agency (CzDA) in the framework of the EU project “Support to the Food Safety and SPS Sector in Georgia under ENPARD IV”.
The series of EU-supported awareness-raising meetings are designed to reach over 300 FBOs producing/processing meat and semi-finished food products, cafés and bars. The campaign started in April and will continue till July 2023. Meetings with FBOs will be held in Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Guria, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, and Adjara.
Within the scope of the EU-supported meetings, with the contribution of qualified specialists of the NFA, FBOs will learn more about the new food safety legislation and the existing foreign trade challenges. Concretely, requirements for exporting to the EU will be presented along with a few success stories about stimulating export in the agriculture sector. The meetings will also discuss meat labelling, processing, and storage.
After the series of awareness-raising meetings, NFA’s webpage will feature an informative summary of the content from the campaign.
"Increasing the awareness of the business sector is of the utmost importance in the process of approximation to the European Union legislation and to achieve the maximum effect", - noted Zurab Zurashvili, head of the International Relations Department of the National Food Agency.
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The European Union supports rural development in Georgia through its ENPARD Programme. Aiming to reduce rural poverty, ENPARD has been implemented since 2013. The Programme started by supporting the development of national agriculture potential. Afterwards, it concentrated also on creating economic opportunities for rural populations in Georgia. Since 2023, ENPARD has placed an even bigger emphasis on improving food safety in the country. The project "Support to the Food Safety and SPS sector in Georgia under ENPARD IV" is co-funded by the Embassy of Sweden, CzDA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
