The equipment will improve agriculture and food safety analysis and standards that will help propel the OECS Free Circulation of Goods Regime.

Laboratories in OECS member states are now better equipped to diagnose issues related to human, animal and plant health, and food safety, after the OECS Commission handed over laboratory equipment to health and food safety testing laboratories, and pest risk analysis units of seven OECS member states.

The equipment totaling EC$309,416.94, was purchased under the 10th EDF Regional Integration and Trade of the OECS Region project, and handed over to Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts/Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It will enable the region’s labs to increase their levels of efficiency.

OECS Director General, Dr. Didacus Jules, said the equipment will help strengthen compliance to international health and food safety standards, and establish a framework for the development of “Centres of Excellence.”

“Initiatives such as these that increase collaboration among member states, strengthen capacity, and provide tools for more scientific ways of working, exemplify the work of the OECS Commission,” he said. “If we’re not able to hold the line against dangers and diseases, our entire Free Circulation of Goods Regime runs into peril.”

Dr. Jules explained that as international trade in food products continues to expand fueled by changing customer tastes and advances, it has given rise to concerns about food safety, chemical residues and contaminants, and the threat of pests and invasive species. Citing actual examples, he mentioned the destruction of the coconut industry by Lethal Yellowing in Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua, that was a direct result of the importation of palms from Florida for landscaping in the tourism industry.

“We have recognized the need for the region to have the capacity to rapidly detect agriculture and food safety issues, and to ensure safe and sustainable trade and consumption. The capacity to meet sanitary and phytosanitary standards to address health and food safety as a region lies in strengthening the institutional and managerial capabilities of our agencies, and in deepening functional cooperation between them,” he said.

Because agricultural health and safety issues are primarily promoted as a trade-related obligation under the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Jules said the region must give equal prominence to product quality improvements and health benefits.

Program officer in the agriculture unit of the OECS Commission, George Alcee, thanked the EU for responding to the request for lab equipment. Its continued support under the Harmonization and Enhancement of OECS Agriculture, Health, and Food Safety Systems, which started in 2012, has strengthened health and food safety systems in the OECS, he said.

The pest risk component of the program involves the provision of training for all OECS countries to undertake science-based risk assessments, and provide quarantine policy advice to protect plant health status, while facilitating trade. It also involves the procurement of equipment to establish pilot labs in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, and Saint Lucia, to safeguard against the entry of exotic pests consistent with the International Plant Protection Convention.

The OECS Commission has trained over 30 quarantine inspectors through the annual UWI Plant Quarantine Training Program. A technician in each member state was trained in lab diagnosis for Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) and New Castle disease. The training took place in Chile.

Mr. Alcee appealed to lab managers and technicians to make the best use of the equipment, as it assists labs in their mandate to protect human, animal, and plant health in the region. Achieving this goal, he said, is the key to realizing the free circulation of goods within the OECS Economic Union.

The handover ceremony coincided with a three-day meeting of agriculture, health and food safety, laboratory, sanitary and phytosanitary quarantine managers of the OECS. Representatives of development partners in attendance included Shivanna Mahabir of LEESquared Consultants and Stephen Farquharson of CROSQ.

The ceremony took place on March 15, at the Golden Palm Conference Centre in Rodney Bay.