Ratifying EAC food safety protocol uplifts integration

This long-delayed step was among areas of accord reached between Tanzania and Kenya in the wake of a trade wrangle chiefly involving maize earlier this year.

The overall view in the legislature was that the move will improve access to a greater choice of safe foods and provide rules for the management of aflatoxins posing hazards to human and animal health. That was still missing.

The introductory exposition said that the protocol was developed in line with Article 151 of the EAC Treaty, which requires partner states to harmonise sanitary and phytosanitary measures for pest and disease control.

Agriculture minister Prof Adolf Mkenda said that ratification of the protocol would boost trade between Tanzania and other East African countries and ensure safety of food, plants and animals.

It appears that it was crucial for use to speed up in ratifying EAC protocols in that regard so that non-tariff impediments to trade are eliminated – that is, instead of depending on goodwill.

The minister could thus affirm that implementing the protocol would accelerate EAC zone growth, especially in the agricultural sector, in part increasing business opportunities thanks to easier access to EAC markets.

But even more important is that the relevant authorities in neighbouring countries will not cite aflatoxins as an impediment.

Further, with the ratification and adoption of the protocol, mannerisms among ministerial departments and agencies will be altered – from a trained suspicion of things from the other side to comprehending the need to harmonise inspection procedures and certification schemes to ensure market standards.

That would see crops delivered safely and efficiently without major hitches at exit or entry points.

The protocol provides for EAC experts to cooperate in preparing standards and enforcement mechanisms in food safety, plant and animal health.

In a sense, accessing fully to this protocol will also add assurance to meat trade in the Middle East in particular, a market that the respective agencies here have struggled to access for years but with little headway seen.

MPs raised a point on the harmonisation of agro-sector laws, policies and regulations encompassing measures to control importation of genetically modified products in line with Tanzania’s position on the matter.

EAC member states remain divided on the status of biotechnology and its products, an aspect that had to be provided for in ironing out original terms of cooperation. There may have been some changes in Tanzania’s outlook since then, but caution is still being observed, which is unlikely to be an impediment in the implementation of the food safety protocol as such.

Dr Christine Ishengoma, the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Water, has appealed to the government to put in place strategies to ensure fair competition as there are possibilities of the country not benefiting from the protocol.

That has been the position for quite some time, having held back the protocol for eight or so years. Luckily, it is no longer tenable, as it denies our produce room to make it into large nearby markets.