Cairo-: Chairman of Egyptian Food Security Authority Dr. Hussein Mansour considered means of joint cooperation between both countries regarding mechanisms of food safety with his counterpart the JFDA General Manager Dr. Nizar Mhidat in Jordan. The cooperation will be reflected in the increase of volume of Egypt-Jordan joint trade exchanges, ensuring their citizens’ safety with regard to commodities introduced to the local and export markets and building complementary relationship between both parties. The means of achieving that is by considering the possibility of entering into memorandum of understanding to promote cooperation and exchange expertise in the upcoming period.
This came on the sidelines of the Egyptian Trade Mission forum, which witnessed the participation of 47 Egyptian companies of manufacturers and exporters to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan during 29-31 May 2022. It was organized by Food Export Council andCouncil for Printing and Packagingin cooperation with the Amman Chamber of Commerce, The General Association for Foodstuffs Merchants of Jordan (GAFJO), and Commercial Service office in Amman, in the participation of about approximately 300 importers in (Jordan- Palestine- Syria- Iraq) who are specialized in food industries. The objective is to increase the volume of trade and the Egyptian exports.
For his part, Chairman of Egyptian Food Security Authority Chairman H.E Dr. Hussein Mansour stated, “We seek cooperation between competent monitoring authorities in Egypt and Jordan to equalize their systems and standards . It will facilitate the speed and ease of access of the food products through ports, conforming to requirements of food safety, and achieving consumer safety in the two brotherly countries .
He highlighted that harmonizing approved and applied systems and standards in Egypt and Jordan will facilitate trade exchange without any unjustified obstacles, and that a dedicated channel should be provided for the access of products without any difficulty. He pointed out that streamlining customs release represents the first challenges encountered by the companies. Based on his Excellency the Prime Minister’s directives, adopted policies have led to reduction of the customs release time to three days. We intend to reduce that release time to one day.
He added that food imports are one of the monitoring activities of food safety which is exclusively assigned to the Authority. On issuing binding technical regulations on food saftey, it relies on it being an international reference while considering scientific bases according to Authority Establishment Law 1 of 2017, and on applying the principles of transparency in exchanging them with private sector before their approval, to be published in the Egyptian Official Gazette “Al-Waqaa”.
He indicated the importance of mounting campaigns of raising awareness and culture of how important food safety standards are. It is one of the most significant challenges facing food trading sectors, especially in the light of publishing misleading information on social media pages.
JFDA General Manager Dr. Nizar Mhidat explained that the Administration was established in 2003 to maintain quality control of food and pharmaceutical products to the Jordanian consumer, based on technical rules through which specifications are applied to ensure providing a safe food to citizens. This can be achieved through inspecting local and imported product. The Administration conducts a number of inspections to confirm the safety of Jordanian exports to other countries, pointing out that the Egyptian products live up to the Jordan’s standards.
He highlighted the need to build integrative relationship and partnership among Arab countries, especially with the Arab Republic of Egypt, regarding food security and its product safety, under such difficult times and amid threats which the world currently encounters in the food sector; hence, affecting its availability. He pointed out that the Administration is ready to streamline measures of trade exchanges of food commodities between Jordan and Egypt according to applicable measure and professional standards, ensuring the availability of safe food to the citizens.
He called to establishing mutual food production and complementary relationships among Arab countries to overcome the challenges facing the world, given that some producing countries will face production shortage in the upcoming years.