Brussels, 13/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - Official Moroccan news agency MAP reports that the institutional twinning project to strengthen the monitoring of phytopharmaceutical products, fertilisers and growing media was launched in Rabat on Tuesday 12 May with €1.2 million in financing from the EU.
The direct beneficiary of this programme (a sort of administrative and regulatory coaching), spread out over 24 months, is the Moroccan National Office for Food Safety (ONSSA). Two European countries, France and Germany, will oversee the programme on behalf of the EU.
The Moroccan minister for agriculture and maritime fisheries, Aziz Akhannouch, attended the ceremony and stated that this “twinning is a great opportunity to improve our system of marketing phytopharmaceutical products, fertilisers and growing media”. It will also serve to “monitor trade” in these products and provide “surveillance on pesticide residues in food”.
The long term goal is to “review our regulation and bring it into line with internationally recognised directives and standards on this”. It is also to give ONSSA greater “assessment and risk management skills” for these products, greater “monitoring and surveillance of pesticide residues in food, and respect for the international conventions ratified by Morocco”, Akhannouch stated. (Fathi B'Chir)