AGRICULTURE officials of Thailand have expressed willingness to help the Philippines improve its food safety program through more benchmarking activities.
Sanchai Tontyaporn, advisor to the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards of Thailand, said the bid to boost food safety should start with good agricultural practices (GAP).
Tontyaporn spoke about the Thai government's role in ensuring food safety in their country during the 2nd National Conference on Food Safety at SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City Monday, July 17.
“Thailand is open to more benchmarking activities where people from the Philippines can study and learn our food safety practices, including GAP,” he said, adding that “as members of the Asean, we should help each other.”
Thailand currently has at least 200,000 GAP certified farms compared to only about 100 in the Philippines. In his speech, Tontyaporn said that Thailand has developed its Food Safety Roadmap in 2004.
The roadmap is an integrated approach consisting of guidelines on what the government can do to address the challenges hounding its food safety situation.
Also, the government of Thailand is providing “incentives” to farmers and producers of GAP certified farms like giving priorities in marketing their products. “GAP certification is one requirement for them to export,” Tontyaporn said.
Prachipat Pongpinyo, senior scientist of the Department of Agriculture of Thailand, affirmed that they are willing to help other Asean nations improve their food safety program.
Pongpinyo, who talked on the role of Thailand government research in implementing GAP, said there is a need for Filipinos to understand the meaning of food safety so that they can know how to do it by themselves.
“If your government will ask for more benchmarkings, we are willing to cooperate," he said, adding that GAP certified farmers can sell their products easily with better prices.
Themed “Food Safety: A Shared Responsibility,” the two-day event which will run until today gathered about 300 participants from the government, agriculture, and food service sectors nationwide.
Meanwhile, Interior Undersecretary Jesus Hinlo Jr., who attended the conference, called on local government units (LGUs) for stricter implementation of local and national policies on food safety.
“We are reminding LGUs that there are certain standards to be implemented to ensure that our food is safe,” Hinlo added.
