Technical authorities of Peru and Thailand held working meeting on sanitary certification

This morning, technical representatives from Peru and Thailand met virtually to evaluate the health and safety control, verification, and certification systems applied by both countries for certain export products. On the Peruvian side, officials from SANIPES (National Fisheries Health Agency) participated and, on the Thai side, experts from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Fisheries (DOF). The meeting was coordinated by the Embassy of Peru in Thailand. 

Since last October, the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand has enforced the so-called "Notification No. 420" by which it establishes criteria to be met in production processes, types of processing equipment and utensils, as well as storage practices for fresh and processed foods including hydrobiological and aquaculture products, fruits and vegetables, cereals, beverages and consumables for human consumption and animal feed, as a requirement to be imported from Thailand. 

During the meeting, SANIPES experts explained the system they have been applying in Peru to evaluate the entire production chain of the fishery, aquaculture, and feed of hydrobiological origin sector, which follows the HACCP system.  The Thai representatives thanked them for their presentation and, after a very productive dialogue and exchange of information, both parties agreed to jointly examine the content of the sanitary certificates to continue guaranteeing the safety of exported food without affecting trade flows. 

It should be noted that, in 2020, Peru exported to Thailand fish and mollusks worth more than US$ 61 million, in addition to many other products in the food sector.