The FINANCIAL — To encourage Georgian companies to produce safe food, the Eurasia Partnership Foundation in partnership with Golden Brand Awards has formally invited food producers to participate in the Best Food Enterprise of the Year (2014).
Georgia should tighten food safety control as it is one of the challenges Georgia faces in the Euro integration process, experts at the Eurasia Partnership Fund and Delegation of the EU to Georgia say.
Enterprises registered in Georgia are invited to fill out the application and submit it by 26 December, 2013. After laboratory testing qualified specialists will reveal the best enterprise in March 2015. The winning company will be awarded at the Golden Brand Awards Ceremony.
Georgia is set to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union in September of 2014, Tamar Beruchashvili, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, told The FINANCIAL. The Agreement, which should guarantee free trade with the EU, must be adopted in 2014, and EU competence issues will enter into force in 2015, Beruchashvili said.
Georgia will have the ability to use all the advantages brought by having an association agreement with the European Union especially from the economic and free trade point of view. This means that Georgia will become a valuable part of Europe’s common economic market. By that time Georgia should be ready to start exporting its production to the European market for which EU is providing support.
“Now Georgia is assuming to initiate a Free Trade Agreement with the EU and gradually Georgia has to fulfil all the food safety requirements,” Juan Echanove, Project Manager of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Safety from the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia, told The FINANCIAL. “The process is complex and will take a long time, but the EU is here to provide support, which consists of capacity building and funds to the institutions in Georgia that are in the front line to improve the system. I doubt that Georgia will improve the general situation within the next 10 years. Having a Free Trade Agreement with the EU does not mean that Europe will reduce the requirements on food safety of Georgian products,” he added.
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Strengthening food safety control will help Georgia to integrate with the EU, experts say
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“Currently Georgia cannot export animal origin products to Europe, because there are animal diseases here that should be controlled. After signing the Free Trade Agreement it does not mean that Georgia will be able to export pork, for example, immediately. But Georgia will be able to do it once the requirements will be applied. The question is not only to produce safe food in Georgia but the country should be very careful in terms of import. The biggest problem will be to improve the food safety issues with SMEs who are not exporting production, middle size companies in the regions, who are putting production on the market. Maybe the companies will not be super happy at first to start working on this direction but in the long-term perspective they will see that it is useful for their business. Matching the food safety requirements is not a cost, it is an investment for the future of a company,” Echanove said.
“Initially we do not expect that many companies will apply for the competition, but I am sure that their number will increase in the coming years,” said Ketevan Vashakidze, President of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation. “We have been conducting monitoring of the Government about what they have been doing for euro integration since 2005. As a result of the monitoring we have found that the most problematic areas have been waste recycling, vocational education and trade-related issues. Before the political integration trade was the best opportunity for Georgia to get close to the EU. People are interested in healthy food and often ask advice on which food is safe to buy. So the customers will be involved in this process and require from the business to provide food safety guarantees. It is very important to have a proper system and legislation, but if the customers do not demand that the companies offer them healthy food, then the companies will not start thinking about it of their own initiative,” she added.
The Eurasia Partnership Foundation started implementing a 30 month project in terms of food safety, which is financed by the EU. Within the framework of this project, Customer Assistance Centers will be created in 4 regions of Georgia. “These centres will monitor the food market and organize the laboratory testing of food samples,” said Vakhtang Kobaladze, Senior Program Manager at Eurasia Partnership Foundation. “The customers will be provided with free legal advice and lawyer service in the event of applying to court. Several thousand EUR is being allocated for financing this service, which is designed for the winning companies of our competition,” he added.
“In general the role of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation is very big in terms of food safety regulation. More than 10 recommendations are already included in the legislation, 17 organizations are involved in working on food safety issues and 11 enterprises have corrected the identified violations. The current government is also willing to harmonize food safety issues with European standards. Parliament initiated correcting the code and creating consumer rights law, which was abolished by the previous government,” said Kobaladze.
“It is true that for food safety control companies will have to allocate a certain budget but when companies have better food safety standards they will also get benefits. They will be able to have access to international markets and their positive positions will raise them on the Georgian market itself,” Echanove said.
For more about Golden Brand Awards go to: http://goldenbrand.finchannel.com
Visit the Eurasia Partnership Fund at: http://www.epfound.ge
Send applications to: rjandieri@epfound.ge
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