FOOD-LATAM: Programme to Make Mercosur a Global Power in Exports

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 10 1999 (IPS) - Far removed from the noisy trade disputes shaking the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), a team of experts in Argentina is working on a plan to bring local food quality norms into line with international standards.

The ultimate aim is to make South America’s leading trade bloc a global power in food exports.

Analysts say that due to the abundance and quality of its food, Mercosur – comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – should prepare itself for addressing the growing demand in Asia, particularly China and India.

Financed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the programme bolsters the work of those who endeavour to obtain and disseminate knowledge in Argentina on international food standards ensuring safe products for consumers.

International standards on food quality also enable the knocking down of artificial barriers standing in the way of trade.

The international norms were drawn up by FAO member countries and took shape in the Codex Alimentarius, which ranks above national codes. Countries tend to use it as a standard, incorporating the new scientific and technical contributions in an ongoing process.

Cecilio Moron, FAO’s chief officer for food and nutrition policy, told IPS that although the first version of Codex came out in 1962, it began to acquire international authority since 1995, with the creation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which adopted it as a basis for resolving trade disputes.

Codex “recommends” hygiene measures that countries should take with respect to food products, and sets tolerable limits for additives and traces of pesticides or other pollutants, with the aim of defending the consumer’s right to safe, healthy, nutritional products.

“Argentina is one of the world’s leading exporters of food, and for that reason it asked FAO for technical assistance,” in order to boost its trade objectives, said Moron.

Codex is increasingly seen as a stamp of quality to which other countries are adhering, bringing their own standards into line.

Brazil was the first country in Latin America to ask FAO for technical assistance in drawing up a programme of similar characteristics, followed by Chile and Argentina. Uruguay is preparing to do the same.

Central America and the Andean countries, meanwhile, are studying similar programmes, but as regional undertakings.

Argentina’s new plan, which began to be drafted in April 1998 and is to be concluded in October, “was a success,” according to Moron. The local point of contact with Codex, in the Secretariat of Agriculture, put together a network of contacts in 16 of Argentina’s 24 provinces, through seminars, conferences, and training workshops.

Government agencies, non-governmental organisations, university professors, business representatives and consumer associations have all taken part in drafting the new plan, which “outdid expectations, because even more seminars were held than initially anticipated,” said Moron.

The aim of the standards is not only to protect consumers, but to bring about more equitable practices in regional and international trade, by removing non-tariff barriers blocking access to markets.

Argentinian engineer Adan Traverso, with the Secretariat of Agriculture’s Office for Promotion of Food Quality, cited one example of how the norms helped meet that objective.

Argentina is the world’s second biggest producer of peanuts, after the United States. Codex admits the presence of a fungus, alphatoxin, in peanuts in a ratio of 20 parts per billion (ppb).

Although Argentina’s last peanut harvest was below that limit – only 12 ppb – the European Union (EU) decided that it would only buy peanuts with a ratio of two ppb.

The Secretariat of Agriculture actively took part in knocking down that barrier to trade. The dispute was resolved in favour of Argentina, with the EU upping its limit to 15 ppb, because the WTO based its resolution on the Codex Alimentarius.

Traverso pointed to the difference between Codex and ISO (International Standards Organisation) certification. While the former guarantees that foods are healthy, nutritional, genuine and harmless to human health from a scientific point of view, ISO inspection is carried out by private companies, and is commercial in nature.

To illustrate how companies can live up to Codex standards and not be ISO-certified, and vice versa, Traverso cited the case of a recent inspection of five fish processing plants in Chile. While all of them were ISO-certified, only two operated in accordance with Codex standards.

Argentina has its own Food Code since 1993. In many aspects, such as in the case of sugar, it is identical to Codex.

In other aspects, however, it is even better, said Traverso. In the case of tolerable limits for traces of pesticides, the local limit is stricter than the international standard, due to the relatively eco-friendly farming practices followed in Argentina.

Moron said the plan promoted by FAO in Argentina not only enabled the creation of a national network of contacts and a law creating a unified code for the entire country, but also served as a springboard for a higher level of participation by Argentina in drawing up new Codex standards.

“Argentina took an extraordinary leap in terms of participation in the discussion groups, and that was directly linked to the FAO project,” said the official.

The Codex Committee sets up technical working groups to discuss proposed standards. Argentina, which had previously remained on the sidelines of the debate, simply receiving and applying the norms, is now taking part in 12 working groups, and coordinating a working group in which 35 countries participate.

The challenge, now that the end of the programme is drawing near, is enforcement and assessment of compliance. With that objective in mind, FAO is sponsoring the creation of a National Codex Committee, which is to continue the work initiated by the project.