Safer food for Africa on agenda of EU conference in Ethiopia

Tisková zpráva Press Release Communiqué de presse

Prague, 2 April 2009
 

Safer food for Africa on agenda of EU conference in Ethiopia

The aim of the conference of the European Commission and the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on 3 April is to make African agricultural and food production more competitive in international trade and to promote African goods on EU markets.  
 
Attention will be paid to the modernisation of testing laboratories, reinforcing food and feed controls and improving access to international markets, but also to strengthening food self-sufficiency and supporting local markets.  
 
The conference is centred on the theme of “Better Training for Safer Food in Africa” with emphasis on enhancing food safety by improving specialist training. This is also the starting point for programmes which will present international standards and good agricultural and manufacturing practices with regard to the quality of foodstuffs as well as animal and plant health and animal welfare.
 
“The conference is intended to increase the competitiveness of African agricultural and food products and to help promote them in international trade through better control, supervision, legislation, management and inspection in line with international standards”, said Czech Minister of Agriculture Petr Gandalovic.
 
In recent years, the volume of reciprocal trading between the EU and African countries has been increasing by about 8 per cent a year. As for the trade balance, African exporters have been achieving a trade surplus which in 2007 amounted to EUR 3 bn.
 
As the first Deputy Minister Ivo Hlavác said: “Another important effect will be the support of South-South trade flows, which will help to provide African consumers with quality foodstuffs.” The conference is based on the Action Plan of the Africa-EU Joint Strategy, adopted at the Lisbon Summit in December 2007. 
 
Additional information: the Czech Republic attaches great importance to the projects of development cooperation, seeing them as its contribution to the Millennium Goals. Currently, there are 7 agricultural projects underway in Africa, many of them focusing on food quality and safety.
 

• Ethiopia has started a three-year project on introducing anti-erosion measures around Lake Awassa;
• Angola organises 4 projects of agricultural production and marketing support;
• in Zambia a project on improving veterinary care and raising the utility value of cattle in the Kaoma District is at its peak;
• Kenya has begun a two-year project of sustainable fishing in Lake Turkana.

Tereza Dvorácková
Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Agriculture