For fresh produce exporters, problems go both ways across the Mediterranean, Niveen Wahish reports BRC, IFC, GAP and ISO 22000 are the acronyms of but a few of the many quality and food safety certifications needed by fresh produce exporters to be able to access the EU market. "Market requirements are tougher than the law. Consumers want to know where their food is coming from," says Alaa Fahmi, acting national project director of E-Trace, a project aiming at improving the capability of Egyptian farmers, growers and pack houses to meet European and international food quality, safety and traceability standards. Fahmi was speaking at the Second Green Med Forum held recently in Alexandria under the title, "Fresh Produce Mediterranean Networking: Integrated Logistics, Wholesale Markets, Quality Products." The forum was organised by Green Med Journal in cooperation with the Alexandria Port Authority. Such a multitude of certifications makes meeting quality requirements a costly and often tedious process that not all exporters are able to sustain. Heike Hagenguth, marketing and business development manager at Pico Agriculture, explains to Al-Ahram Weekly that for her company to meet all the standards clients from the EU ask for, the company has to go through many certification processes and very long preparation phases. "It is a costly, time- consuming issue," she says, adding that it means that the company hires staff only to keep up with the paperwork. However, she clarified that it is a marketing tool for their clients: "It is their value proposition." Nonetheless, she would be happy "if we have one standard that applies for all." This is a problem faced by exporters worldwide, not just in Egypt, says Fahmi. He said that the originators of these standards are currently trying to coordinate through what is known as the Global Food Safety Initiative. This initiative aims at harmonising and streamlining food safety standards so that acquiring one would cover all. Such streamlining would be particularly useful for small exporters who have problems absorbing the cost of abiding by numerous requirements. In Morocco, help is being extended to small farmers through a cooperatives union -- Union Maghrebine des Agriculteurs (UMAGRI). "Our role as a cooperatives union is to simplify the understanding of quality and other requirements such as traceability to the small and mini farmers. The big ones can make it on their own," Fatma Ben Rejeb Hezami, director of UMAGRI told the Weekly. "We need to make small farmers understand the importance of such notions to be exporters. Not each of them on their own. Our mission is to encourage them to export together. If one of them does not give enough importance to quality and food safety, it will not work," she added. Hezami does not look at the certificates as an impediment. "It is their food safety. And we have no choice but to upgrade to be able to enter EU market." But abiding by quality is not the only issue exporters have to deal with. Logistics is another. Hagenguth of Pico says that the arrival of exports to certain ports in the EU is more difficult than to others. Sometimes the problem is not documentation or testing but logistical facilities such as a proper cold store or proper transportation. Hagenguth also spoke of logistical problems within Egypt. She pointed out that exporters from Upper Egypt have the most difficulty. They need to take their produce to Cairo or Alexandria airports where there is a bonded warehouse to carry out the customs procedures. She named other problems: "There are not enough cold stores or packing houses. Road transportation is a pain, and there are not enough refrigerated trucks to collect produce. The time it takes on the road affects the shelf life of the product." Problems go both ways. Ricardo Martini, CEO of TRAMACO, a freight forwarder based in Ravenna port and specialising in transport of fresh produce, said Italian fruit and vegetable exporters have had problems in the past getting their exports to Egypt. "The containers were stopped for many days in the port of Alexandria for control and quarantine. Goods at the end suffered huge damages in quality and there was a lot of extra costs," he said, adding that this led exporters to refrain from exporting to Egypt because no one can guarantee goods will be cleared promptly. Martini believes if this problem was resolved freight prices would drop because shipping companies taking Egyptian exports to Italy would bring back Italian produce to Egypt rather than returning empty. Furthermore, he pointed out that since the global economic slowdown many people in Europe are calling for the closure of borders and the favouring of local farmers. "If Italian exporters could increase their exports to Egypt, this kind of discussion could be stopped." In fact, Sherine El-Naggar, of Naggar Shipping, speaking during the forum admitted that there is a need to upgrade Egyptian ports to enable quicker procedures and the release of goods. A third issue addressed during the forum was that of networking. According to Antonio Felice, managing editor of Green Med Journal, today's global economic slowdown calls for increased networking. "Countries of the Mediterranean have to work as a group." He also called for a Mediterranean trademark to identify Mediterranean production. A start towards that could be achieved, he said, by the forum's launch of Assomedmarkets, an association bringing together managers of wholesale markets in the Mediterranean as well as institutions and associations. According to Dario Caccamisi, head of the Italian Association of Markets and Agro-food Centres (ANDMI), Assomedmarkets will tackle the issue of information availability, harmonising quality control and logistics to enable Mediterranean producers to come together. Felice believes this association should come into existence in the medium term. "We have to do something before single-country exportation and production is in difficulty."
