Handling Food Safety Issues in Paradise: Part 3—Oceania

“FFSA is a hub for sharing ideas, viewpoints, and best practices due to the diverse experiences of members acquired through quality management, consultancy, research, and training in the general quality infrastructure, food safety, agriculture, agribusiness, subject matter expert development, value addition, and operational capacity building,” Lal points out. “Fiji’s distinct location in the heart of the South Pacific means that FFSA’s members travel a lot to neighboring islands. Thus, we understand the most common food safety issues affecting the entire region and we see how people are devising solutions that can work in an island context.”

“There is a general lack of awareness of both food safety issues and cost-effective local ways to ensure compliant, safe, and healthy nutritious food,” Sayers says. “There is still a lack of harmonization of export-import protocols and standards across the Pacific countries despite regional trade agreements. More importantly, not many of the smaller countries recognize other island countries’ inspection services, certifications, or processes, although there are some exceptions. This situation is improving, particularly in fresh produce, as a result of a New Zealand and Australian government funded program called Pacific Horticulture and Agriculture Market Access.

“One reason for the slow pace of change is the cost of sending to the other islands the small number of qualified representatives of health and agriculture services and the gap in national capacity whilst they are away,” Sayers continues. “And there are hundreds of potential protocols to be harmonized. Each process can take months of study and testing, so biosecurity services tend to prioritize work on protocols where funding is available or the likely trade impact will be high. That often means potential niche market food products or specific varieties of seeds have to wait their turn to get biosecurity approval.”

“South Pacific supply chain actors are also taking too long to conform to even the basic requirements of international food safety standards, so major tourism buyers still cannot accept many local food suppliers,” Lal says. “The conformity challenge is compounded by a poor record and time keeping mentality among famers, collectors, shipping, and air freight providers and handlers at sea and air ports, plus processors and buyers.”

Lal is quick to point out that the availability of people who are passionate about the much needed kind of food safety advisory work is a problem in the South Pacific, as is finding enough funds to support their fixed costs. “Some 90 percent of the trained and experienced food safety advisors have this work as their second occupation that is done on weekends, in the evening, or during vacation time from their main jobs,” she explains. “The need for qualified food safety professionals is enormous among the nations of the South Pacific, but demand that can pay a living salary and support even the small costs of a professional organization or association is not evident, so some form of sponsorship or subsidy is required.”

“FFSA fills a gap along supply chains in Fiji by providing essential food safety advisory services that are practical, affordable, accessible, and of a certified international standard,” Sayers interjects. “There is also a lack of qualified and experienced food safety inspectors in the South Pacific region to verify quality compliance, licensing of premises, and processing facilities. The government services in this area face a workload that far exceeds their capacity.”

Climate change in the South Pacific is having an impact, too, Lal adds. “Cyclones, droughts or floods can wipe out an exporter’s or food processor’s supply from one season to the next so that a business cannot afford the cost of its annual audit for a previously hard won HACCP certification,” she says. “All of Fiji’s food sectors are at risk from climate change.”