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While trade in plants and plant products stimulates economic growth and brings prosperity to rural communities and agricultural sectors, it is also a pathway for harmful plant pests with potentially devastating consequences for the agriculture, food security and the environment. The international standards developed within the framework of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) are key for countries to harmonize their phytosanitary measures to manage pest risks effectively and trade safely without spreading plant pests.
The Standards Committee (SC), with 27 participants, representing all seven FAO regions, met between 13-17 November 2017 at FAO-HQ in Rome, Italy. The SC led by their Chairperson, Mr Ezequiel FERRO (Argentina), had fruitful discussions on topics of major concern to the phytosanitary world.
Particularly, a long sought compromise was reached on the reorganization of the suite of fruit fly standards. The reorganization will be presented to the CPM-13 (2018). The reorganization should help countries, especially developing countries, have a better and more logical framework to implement the phytosanitary measures related to fruit flies.
A National Workshop on Sea Containers Phytosanitary Standards was organized by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection & Quarantine (AQSIQ) of the Peoples' Republic of China, from 8-9 November 2017, in Shanghai, China. This workshop was held on the occasion of the first meeting of the IPPC Sea Container Task Force (SCTF) organized from 6-10 November 2017, in Shanghai, China. The main objective of the workshop is to support the implementation of the IPPC Sea Container Complementary Action Plan.
Photo Copyright Mamadouba Camara 2017. PCE Workshop participants convened in Conakry, the Republic of Guinea to apply their third and final Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluation.
A third mission for the application of the Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluation was executed in Conakry, the Republic of Guinea the 18 – 22 September 2017. The purpose of this final mission was to formulate capacity development activities to address the capacity needs identified in the first two PCE applications, to finalize the logical frameworks related to phytosanitary legislation, and to finalize the completion of PCE modules.
The first meeting of the IPPC Sea Container Task Force (SCTF) was held from 6-10 November 2017, in Shanghai, China. The meeting was jointly organized by the IPPC Secretariat, and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection & Quarantine (AQSIQ) of the Peoples' Republic of China, and hosted by Shanghai Inspection and Quarantine Bureau (SHCIQ). Mr Jingyuan Xia, IPPC Secretary, opened the meeting, Ms. Yijuan Li, Deputy Director General (DDG) of the AQSIQ presented a welcome address on behalf of the AQSIQ, and Mr. Yucheng Zheng, DDG of the (SHCIQ), delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the (SHCIQ).
Sea Containers are a notorious pathway for the potential entry of pests, as they are the most common means of transfer of internationally traded goods and moving personal effects. The entry and spread of pests to new areas via sea containers could result in important control and eradication costs, losses in yields and access to export markets, and threaten food security, agriculture, as well as the environment.
The numbers of phytosanitary legislation reports have been increasing in a stable way over the last 4 years. In the year 2014 IPPC Contact Points or their IPP editors uploaded 59 reports on the IPP; while in 2015 - 60 reports; and in 2016 - 58 reports. This year 48 reports on phytosanitary legislations have been uploaded on the IPP by countries so far. Those reports make a 40% increase in comparison to all previous years (2005-2013). Four stable record years in a row has never happened before.