Georgetown: Nine poultry processing plants in the region have been approved to trade among member states as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) continues to move steadily towards increasing intra-regional and food security, the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat has announced.
It said that the approval came during the 71st Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture last week.
The secretariat said the poultry plants from Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago were cleared to sell poultry products intra-regionally after they were assessed by Regional Risk Assessments Teams and met the sanitary requirements to enter the CARICOM market.
Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) coordinated the assessments and the process of review and finalisation by the CARICOM Committee of Chief Veterinary Officers.
The meeting also urged member countries “to adopt the specifications for poultry and poultry products which were developed by the Caribbean Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) and approved by the COTED in 2013.
In addition, the COTED has resolved the matter of duck meat trade between Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname.
“Trinidad and Tobago will, within 30 days, approve Suriname as one of the countries that has met the SPS requirements for exporting duck meat to the twin-island member state,” the Secretariat added.
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