Marketing Board pack house staff complete HACAP training
14 September 2020
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Cooperatives hosted a closing ceremony for staff of the newly remodeled St Lucia Marketing Board, who completed the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACAP)Training.
The training was held for a duration of six weeks, and is an international standard for food safety which seeks to improve the production of agricultural produce in Saint Lucia. The training forms part of a collaborative effort between the Taiwan Technical Mission and IICA, and falls under the “Enhancement of the Efficiency of Production/Distribution Supply Chains in the Fruits and Vegetables Sector” project with the overall aim of reducing the food import bill.
Adeline Eudovic, Project Coordinator of the Seven Crops project congratulated the staff on a job well done. She said: “I’m very pleased with the feedback and the knowledge that has been imparted by the facilitator, Mr. Edmund. I encourage you to put everything you learn into practice and to maintain the enthusiasm with which you approached the training sessions. Congratulations to all the graduates on a job very well done.”
Head of the Taiwan Technical Mission in Saint Lucia, Mario Chen, expressed gratitude to the participants of the HACAP training. Chen said the initiative is geared toward ensuring that local crops are of the highest quality.
“We have to make sure that with every step, the food risk is so small that there will be no risks from local crops that are sold by the marketing board,” he said.
Gregg C. E Rawlins, Representative of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in the Eastern Caribbean States, explained that IICA will continue to work with the Marketing Board to improve the standards and quality of produce. He said: “We are now seeking to see how we can build upon the work that has already been done. We will therefore be working with the marketing board, and we’ve already have very constructive discussions with them.”
The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACAP)Training was held on Friday, September 4, 2020.