Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) Executive Director Candelle Walcott-Bostwick has called on manufacturers to ensure that they adhere to the available standards in order to be able to negotiate better prices.
She was at the time addressing stakeholders at the National Codex Committee Forum.
“Our local manufacturers need to recognise that if we do not implement the necessary standards which provide confidence, our products would not be able to access regional and global markets… and when we implement standards, we can
GNBS Executive Director Candelle Walcott-Bostwick
go negotiate market prices and not take what is presented to us,” she told stakeholders.
Walcott-Bostwick stressed that although the GNBS had standards and guidelines to govern the manufacturing sector, manufacturers were choosing not to implement those standards and, as such, the entity would be engaging all Government Ministries, particularly the Public Health and Agriculture Ministries, to sensitise them on the standards available that should be implemented for the various sectors.
She noted that the GNBS housed Guyana’s Codex contact point which serves as the critical link between the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and the National Codex Committee (NCC). She noted that through Codex, Guyana has been provided with the opportunity to attend several CAC forums and develop its Codex standards, which addressed food safety issues across borders and reduced technical trade barriers. She added that Codex standards provide guidelines for food hygiene, and the limits for food additives, and pesticide and veterinary drug residues among other contaminants.
Walcott-Bostwick charged stakeholders to let standards be the foundation of their business and pledged the GNBS’ support to strengthen the work of the Codex Secretariat to ensure access to information by all stakeholders.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission is the central part of the Joint Food and Agriculture Organisation/World Health Organisation (FAO/WHO) Food Standards Programme and was established by FAO and WHO to protect consumer health and protect fair practices in food.
The Codex Alimentarius, often referred to as the food code, has become the global reference point for consumers, food producers and processors, national food control agencies and the international food trade.
The code has an enormous impact on the thinking of food producers and processors as well as on the awareness of the consumers. Its influence extends to every continent, and its contribution to the protection of public health and fair practices in the food trade is immeasurable, according to the FAO.
