Bilateral meeting with Ministry for Primary Industries of New Zealand - Mr Ray Smith

Rome - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, had a bilateral meeting with Mr Ray Smith, Director-General of the Ministry for Primary Industries of New Zealand, on the sidelines of the FAO Global Conference on Sustainable Livestock Transformation taking place at FAO Headquarters from 25 to 27 September.

The Director-General thanked New Zealand for its consistent support to FAO and encouraged the country to increase support for sustainable livestock transformation through FAO. Mr Smith congratulated the Director-General for holding the first Global Conference on Sustainable Livestock Transformation and emphasized the importance to have such an event, looking forward to the actions arising from the Global Conference.

The pair further discussed and emphasized the importance of CODEX Alimentarius to promote international trade and improve capacity of developing countries to enhance food safety in line with science- and data- based evidence. They also highlighted the need to support the Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and exchanged views on the need for open trade.