LUSAKA, July 29 (Chinese media) -- The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has urged its member countries to standardize their agricultural products in order to become competitive on the international market, according to The Post on Tuesday.
During the regional training workshop on ISO 22000 Food Safety Management in Lusaka Monday, COMESA assistant secretary general Stephen Karangizi said that the ISO 22000 was important for its member countries since all agricultural products constituted a large percentage of exports from the region to the rest of the world.
"It is therefore important to ensure the security of our exports on which a large population of our region are dependant," he said.
Karangizi said that the training program was taking place at a very important time in the region's history as COMESA was about to launch a Customs Union which would result in the establishment of a common external policy and a common commercial policy in dealing with the rest of the world.
"Secondly, the region is engaged in negotiations with the European Union for a partnership agreement which is likely to influence the region's trade with one of its major trading partners, the EU," he said.
Karangizi said the demand for food safety was growing all over the world and the COMESA region needed to raise its standards to international levels.
"The demand will increase especially when COMESA becomes a Customs Union because agricultural and food products produced or processed in one country will move more freely in the regional market," he said.
Karangizi said it was unfortunate that most COMESA members had been unable to take full advantage of most trade agreements with developed markets due to poor standards of products.
"One of the major reasons for this was the acceptability of their products particularly, agricultural products especially with the challenge of meeting stringent food standards set by developed economies," said Karangizi.
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