The Regional Consultative Meeting on Harmonization of Dairy Standards was held at the COMESA Secretariat in Lusaka, Zambia, from 1st to 5th October 2007, under the auspices of COMESA with the participation of the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat.
The Zambia Bureau of Standards hosted the meeting as well as playing the role of Technical Secretariat. The meeting involved stakeholders from the dairy industry in the region, notably, national bureaus of standards, dairy regulators and dairy industry players.
The meeting was held pursuant to the decision of the COMESA SQA (Standardization and Quality Assurance) committee made at their last meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2006 that COMESA and the EAC should come up with common regionally harmonized dairy standards that would facilitate open regional trade in dairy products based on East African Standards (EAS) developed earlier.
Prior to the regional meeting, national consultative meetings, facilitated by RATES, Land O' Lakes and respective national bureaus of standards, were held in the target EAC/COMESA countries involving relevant public and private sector stakeholders in the dairy industry to review the EAS dairy standards and to agree on national positions as input into developing harmonized standards for dairy common to both EAC and COMESA at the regional meeting.
The Meeting was attended by all the countries that had been invited, namely, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sudan Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The meeting was also attended by representatives from COMESA Secretariat, EAC Secretariat, Eastern and Southern African Dairy Association (ESADA), RATES, Land O' Lakes and the East, Central & Southern Africa (ECSA) Health Community.
Dr. Kipkirui Arap Lang'at, Executive Director of the Eastern and Southern African Dairy Association (ESADA) speaking on behalf of the dairy industry in the region, thanked EAC and COMESA for moving the process of harmonization of dairy standards to the final level of consultations at the regional level. He observed that the dairy industry in the region through ESADA had been involved in the process from the start as the harmonisation of standards was one of ESADA's core mandates. Dr. Lang'at informed the meeting that ESADA was a private sector organisation founded in October 2004 with the overall mission of increasing trade in African dairy products. He further informed the meeting that among the objectives of ESADA was to lobby for an improved policy environment conducive to regional and international trade with ESADA already working with COMESA and EAC on the regional dairy policy agenda.
Dr. Lang'at indicated that he hoped that the deliberations would be a success so that the private sector may start a new era of free movement of dairy products across the region's borders without any hindrance so long as they met the stipulated minimum standards. He observed however, that this was a challenge for all the players to ensure that there was adequate training in member countries for all players across the value chain on the importance of realising the agreed standards.
He observed further that work remains to be done in development of reliable systems for management and control of infectious diseases through a regional SPS Protocol; continuous benchmarking against set international standards; and development of education campaigns to increase public knowledge of dairy safety and hygiene issues with the greatest test of success coming when all countries start to pay producers on the basis of quality standards rather than volume. In conclusion, he thanked all partners, particularly ESADA member States, the EAC Secretariat, COMESA Secretariat, RATES and Land O' Lakes for their contribution to the success of the standards harmonisation programme.
The Objective of the meeting
The representative of the COMESA Secretariat gave an overview of the objectives of the Regional Consultative Meeting as well as an overview of the COMESA standards harmonization process. With respect to the regional meeting, he indicated that comments received from the various national consultations had been consolidated and would provide the content for the deliberations as a basis for reaching consensus on harmonised regional dairy standards. He also urged delegates to deliberate within the spirit of "give and take" so as to reach consensus on key issues related to the nine standards to be considered.
With respect to formal adoption of the regional standards, he informed the meeting that once agreement had been reached, the harmonised standards would be processed for final adoption through the respective procedures of the EAC and COMESA up to national adoption and incorporation into national standards regulations. This would include consideration of such issues as dual numbering of the agreed regional standards to reflect EAC/COMESA.
The meeting considered and deliberated on the following EAS Standards based on the original EAS Texts, consolidated inputs from national consultations and discussions. The standards considered were:
EAS 67:2000 Raw cow mill - Specification
EAS 22:2006 Butter - Specification
EAS 27:2006 UHT milk - Specification
EAS 33:2006 Yoghurt - Specification
EAS 49:2006 Dried whole milk and skimmed milk powder - Specification
EAS 69:2006 Pasteurized milk - Specification
EAS 70:2006 Dairy ices and dairy ice cream - Specification
EAS 87:2006 Sweetened and condensed milk
CONCLUSION AND WAY FORWARD
The meeting concluded that:
a. There was need to provide training to officials that are involved in the regional Standards harmonization process so that they can prepare themselves more adequately before the regional meetings;
b. COMESA member States and EAC partner States should as far as possible, maintain the same representatives for the Dairy Standards Harmonization meetings, in order to ensure continuity in the standards harmonization process;
c. There was an urgent need for COMESA and EAC Secretariats to develop harmonized procedures for harmonization of COMESA and EAC Standards;
d. There was an urgent need to harmonise all the standards that had been referenced in the Draft Dairy Standards that the meeting had just agreed upon, otherwise the implementation of some of them would be difficult.
As a way forward, the meeting agreed on the following:
a. The agreed Draft Standards, be circulated with track changes to the COMESA and EAC Secretariats as well as the delegates from countries that participated in the meeting, by Wednesday, 10th October 2007;
b. The Technical Secretariat should clean up the documents including the removal of sections of the standards that are specific to the EAC such as the Foreword, then re-circulate them;
c. The Draft Standards should also be provided in French;
d. The Standards should be circulated as Draft EAC/COMESA Harmonized Standards;
e. The COMESA and EAC Secretariats should send the agreed Draft Standards for further processing in their respective regional structures;
f. COMESA and EAC Secretariats should urgently develop harmonized procedures for harmonization of COMESA and EAC Standards;
g. COMESA and EAC should take steps to ensure urgent harmonization of the standards referenced in the agreed Draft EAC/COMESA Harmonized Standards.
The Report was unanimously adopted. The agreed draft harmonized dairy standards are attached.
