With the aim of supporting the Dominican agricultural export sector, in the development of a modern sanitary and phytosanitary regulatory framework, representatives of the Trade Safe (TraSa) project, financed by the Department of Agriculture of the United States Embassy, signed a work agreement with the Center for Agricultural and Forestry Development (CEDAF).
The alliance between CEDAF and the TraSa project, executed by the International Executive Service Corps (IESC), aims to develop the capacity of agricultural producers and exporting companies to comply with national and international standards related to the health of people, animals and plants.
The director of the TraSa Project, Brian Rudert, assured that CEDAF, since its inception, has been an important and strong ally for both the Ministry of Agriculture and the entire agricultural sector.
“Our project wants to take advantage of this important relationship to help producers and exporters, as well as the Ministry, improving the coverage and depth of the impact of its services on sanitary and phytosanitary issues,” Rudert explained.
“We are honored by the trust placed by IESC in CEDAF in this undertaking, which will require urgent responses to the challenges facing the country in the sanitary and phytosanitary area,” said Santiago Tejada, president of CEDAF, who recalled that a mission similar was happily accomplished at the conclusion of the Export Quality program last year.
With this agreement it is established that the TraSa project and CEDAF will train export agricultural producers on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), as well as on the requirements of the Food Safety Act of the United States (FSMA) and traceability, using the methodology of Farmer Field Schools (ECA).
In another order, CEDAF will support TraSa with the implementation of a donation program for agricultural research on different topics, including post-harvest production, integrated pest management, among others.
The mission of the TraSa Project is to improve the efficiency, coordination, transparency of trade and the safety of food and agricultural products in the Dominican Republic, through support for sanitary and phytosanitary measures, standards and regulations based on science and risk analysis.
