33. The Government of Botswana prepared a paper on “Assuring food safety and quality in the small and medium-size food enterprises (CAF 05/5)”. Dr Claude Mosha of Tanzania presented the paper in the absence of a representative of Botswana. The paper provided information on the economic and social importance of small and medium food enterprises (SMEs) in Africa, definitions of SMEs and the application of appropriate quality assurance schemes in food SMEs, including the benefits of GAP/GHP/GMP, HACCP and ISO quality management standards. The paper further outlined the obstacles to applying food safety management systems in SMEs in Africa, strategies for implementation of food safety and quality management systems in SMEs and case studies on approaches to food safety management systems. The paper presented several recommendations for assuring food safety and quality in SMEs, which are reflected in the subsequent section of the strategic plan.
34. The conference expressed its appreciation to Botswana for preparing the paper and to Dr Mosha for presenting it and agreed on the importance of improving food safety and quality in SMEs in Africa.
35. The conference stressed the importance of SMEs to the economies of the region and recognized the constraints facing SMEs in producing safe and high quality food, as well as the need to generate and implement practical solutions to address these problems. The conference emphasized that SMEs should not be intimidated by the implementation of HACCP systems or its pre-requisite programmes, but should view these principles as tools to improve the safety of the food they produce. The challenges related to certification of HACCP systems in SMEs were highlighted. The importance of implementing control systems on a case-by-case basis, rather than at a theoretical level was also noted.
36. The need for strong political commitment to implement policies to assist SMEs in producing safe food was underlined. The conference emphasized that government officials should serve as partners with SMEs, rather than simply policing the safety of their products. The conference also noted the importance of including provisions for improving the safety and quality of foods produced by SMEs in national food safety strategic plans.
37. The conference noted the successful experiences in some countries, as well as the particularly challenging issues faced by other countries recovering from war or with extenuating political circumstances in assuring the safety and quality of foods produced by SMEs. The need for sharing experiences in this regard was emphasized.
38. The conference agreed that food producers and regulators need to change their mindset from traditional food control approaches to modern, HACCP based approaches to ensuring food safety and quality. The need for training of trainers in this regard at the regional level, followed by national level training tailored to the situation of the country was emphasized.
39. The conference underlined the need for the countries of the region to be proactive in identifying their own problems as well as in developing and implementing solutions to those problems and then requesting external assistance if needed. The importance of implementing a “farm to table” approach to food safety, by educating farmers and small-scale producers and processors of practical actions to promote food safety, was emphasized.
