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USAID
cares about food safety
 In
September USAID’s AgBiz Program organized a
three-day workshop on “HACCP System
Implementation, Verification and Maintenance” in
Kavadarci. The objective of this capacity
enhacmenement activity was to introduce the
HACCP (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control
Points) to Macedonian agribusiness from the
three value chains, and preset the advantages of
proper application of this system, which
ultimately effects the production of safe food
products.
According to Macedonian food safety regulations,
all food operators in the Republic must
introduce, implement and maintain food safety
assurance systems based on HACCP principles as
of January 1st 09. This requirement is
applicable to all food operators regardless of
whether they produce for the domestic market
only, or they export to EU markets. AgBiz
recognized this critical need on the part of its
customers, and organized this HACCP training
Workshop participants represented a range of
firms such as agribusiness working in the table
grape, wild gathered products and fresh
vegetables value chains. In addition to these
firms, a certification company and an organic
products producer organization were also
beneficiaries of the training. The companies
that participated were: “Flors”; “Agrotikvesh”;
“Ledra Agro”, “Vigan”, “Angormarketing”;”Dushan
Cirik” and Balkan Biosert, the certification
entity and the Federation of Farmers for organic
production. Sixteen representatives from the
eight companies were able to obtain in-depth
information about what a HACCP system means,
what the value of it is and how to implement and
maintain a HACCP system within the company. The
goal of this training was to help company
managers and HACCP team members to easily
acknowledge where and what type of problems can
arise concerning food safety, and how to prevent
them from happening.
“We gained information on where to go and how to
use the HACCP standard, and how to improve our
production control! Meeting this food safty
standard, will assure more added-value of our
products, and will result in our being more
competitive in reginal and global markets!” said
one of the participants at the training.
“The main feature of the HACCP system is
prevention, and not inspec-tion. HACCP
represents a system of self-imposed control of
food safety in our facilities. In other words,
the people responsible for the food production
hold the prime responsibility for the food
safety!” said Ph.D. Vladimir Kakurinov, one of
the trainers.
USAID’s AgBiz Program provides a range of
support to agribusiness firms to enhance their
export competitiveness by supporting training,
marketing activities, technical assistance,
physical facilities expansion and advanced
equipment acquisition.
AgBiz Program is stimulating the sustainable and
significantly in-creased growth of Macedonian
agribusinesses participating in value chains
that have good po-tential in export markets,
espe-cially for value-added products, and where
there is an opportunity for a broad-based
positive impact.To date, the AgBiz has organized
three human resources capacity enhancement
activities. Two were related to HACCP standards
for customers in four of the five AgBiz value
chains (bottled wine, table grapes, fresh
vegetables and wild gathered products).
A total of 13 companies from the four value
chains were represented by 24 participants who
attended the training ses-sions and obtained
certificates for “HACCP Systems Implementation,
Verification and Maintenance” issued by team of
local experts.
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