Seminar%20on%20the%20Implementation%20of%20UNECE%20Standards%20in%20Trade

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Implementation of UNECE Standards for
Agricultural Products in Trade

• Seminar on the Implementation of UNECE Standards
  in Trade
• Vilnius, Lithuania, 29 October 2004
• Tom Heilandt
• United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

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Outline

• Meat as a commodity
• Multiplicity or rules
• About quality

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Trading in meat is expensive and difficult
A Non-standard raw material
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A complicated commodity

• Meat is a complicated commodity
• Many different actors are involved
• Many rules covering meat trade from the stable to
  the table

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Many rules

• There are international rules Codex
  Alimentarius, OIE, UNECE, ISO, World Customs
  Organizations etc.
• There are implementations of international rules
  and proprietary rules in countries and regional
  country groupings (e.g. European Union)
• There are private rules Global food safety
  initiative, Eurepgap
• There are WTO rules about how rules should be
  made in order to ensure fair trade

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A long distribution chain
farmer with cow
transport
cattle market
transport
transport
abattoirs
abattoirs
packing plant
factory
butcher
restaurant
supermarket
consumer
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All are customers

• Households
• Point of sale
• Processors
• Abattoirs
• Farmers

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Administrative Rules

• Rules about customs procedures
• Rules about transport and handling
• Rules about labelling and accompanying documents
• Etc.

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Quality rules for the process and the product

• The expected properties as broadly defined in ISO
  90002000 The totality of features and
  characteristics of a product, process or service
  that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or
  implied needs
• "excellence" something that distinguishes from
  similar objects that justifies demand.

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Expected properties Generic quality level of
food products

• Absence of defect, fraud and adulteration (e.g.
  food safety, quality defects) regulated in food
  safety and quality standards
• Presence of expected properties (e.g nutritional
  components, external and internal quality
  aspects) regulated or starting to be in food
  quality or labelling standards

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Excellence Specific quality of food products

• Added value through
• Forms of production (organic farming,
  environmental consideration, animal welfare),
• Specific production areas (designation of origin)
  and their associated traditional production
  methods.
• High interest in this area
• Operators try to distinguish their products from
  similar ones to attract customer attention and
  fidelity
• Regulators provide a legal framework.

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Implementation of rules

• Mandatory rules are implemented because their
  non-implementation would have severe consequences
  (legal or financial)
• Recommendations are implemented because
• it makes sense,
• it is demanded by the buyer,
• Everybody uses them

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Possibilities for Implementation of UNECE
standards
UNECE Standard
European Commission
Government
Trade
Codex Alimentarius
OECD Scheme
Commission Regulation
Codex Standard
Explanatory Brochure
National Standard
Trade Standard
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UNECE Standards for Meat

• UNECE Standards for Meat are Recommendations
• They define a common trading language for buyers
  and sellers
• The more they are used the more useful they
  become
• They are used because they facilitate trade and
  ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business

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For all species
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Why do we need a common language?

• Consider a pork belly boneless rindless
• Denmark 1808
• British 55211
• British (Meat Buyers Guide) 314 (only bone in)
• USA (NAMP-Meat Buyers Guide) 409
• USA (NPPC) 3620
• Aus 4332 (single ribbed)

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Why do we need a common language?

• Long distribution chain with critical processes
  to control
• Specification is primarily visual
• Normal communications are non-visual
• Product is primarily judged on appearance

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Cost of problems

• Consumer confidence in product performance
• Buyer and seller interface confidence
• Increasingly expensive quality control
• Expensive communications
• travel
• time resources

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Standards are needed

• To define common trading language for all actors
  in the supply chain
• To facilitate fair international trade
• To avoid bad quality products on the markets
• To guide producers to meet market requirements
• To build trust and market opportunities
• To encourage high quality production
• To improve producers profitability
• To protect consumers interests
• Remove technical barriers to trade

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A new system

• Imagine a system that enables all parties in the
  distribution chain to have the same unambiguous
  specification for transactions
• the same picture
• the same language
• the same critical information (weight, colour,
  texture, cutting lines)
• All of this applicable to standard and
  non-standard requirements

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Added value

• cross reference to national standards
• reduces language problems
• low communication costs
• speculative market for buyers and sellers
• product data

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Applications

• Government and other official bodies
• Health professionals
• Meat inspection services
• Meat purchasing (commercial and official)
• Meat traders and meat plants
• Training organisations
• Veterinary (practice and training)

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UNECE Standards for Meat

• Porcine Meat - Carcases and Cuts - 1998 -
  currently being revised
• Bovine Meat - Carcases and Cuts - 2004
• Ovine Meat - Carcases and Cuts - 2004
• Chicken Meat - Carcases and Parts 2004
• Llama/Alpaca Meat - 2004
• Other standards planned Goat, Turkey, Veal

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Minimum requirements
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Purchaser specified requirements
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Multilingual dictionary
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Primal cuts
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Cut descriptions
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Bovine Coding
 
(01) 91234567890121 - Global Trade Item Number
(GTIN) (3102) 000376 - Net Weight,
kilograms (7002) 15111110205142111 - UN/ECE Meat
Carcasses and Cuts Code (13) 001231 -
Slaughter/Packaging Date (10) 123ABC - Batch
Number
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Principles for the Development of UNECE Standards

• All relevant actors in the supply chain (buyers,
  sellers, retailers, producers, consumers etc.
  through their associations) should participate
• Cooperation with other international
  organizations should be sought and any
  duplication avoided
• All UN member countries can participate with the
  same rights
• Decisions are taken on a consensus basis

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Organizational Structure
ECOSOC
Economic Commission for Europe
Committee for Trade, Industry and Enterprise
Development
Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards
Specialized Section on Standardization of
Fresh Fruit and Vegetables
Dry and Dried Fruit
Seed Potatoes
Meat
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Participation in different committees

• Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia,
  Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Côte
  dIvoire, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
  France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, India,
  Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Lithuania, Morocco,
  Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal,
  Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, South
  Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine,
  Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States,
  Uruguay, European Community

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Why participate in standardization?

• To be integrated in the international trading
  system (to contribute and decide)
• To propose standards for local products for which
  international standards do not exist
• To network, exchange experiences, learn from
  others

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Products with future

• High quality products which can command a high
  price
• Promotion of brand awareness for local products
  (controlled origin labels)
• Organic produce

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UNECE standards and meeting information on the
internet

• Http//www.unece.org/trade/agr/welcome.htm

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Agriculture and trade keys to civilization

• We all need to eat!
• We need to get the right quantity of good quality
  food
• How we get our food and what we eat determines
  how we live.
• Agriculture and trade have given us the time to
  create the civilization we know today.

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The role of agriculture

• Agriculture should give all of us
• Enough, affordable, safe, healthy, tasty food
• That has been produced in a sustainable way, with
  respect to our environment and the other
  creatures with who we share this planet and
• Agriculture should give those who work there a
  fair income and good working conditions

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The Nutrition Transition
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Modern agriculture A success story!

• More people than ever before have enough to eat
  and pay less for it
• Our numbers have increased the percentage of
  people suffering from hunger and malnutrition has
  decreased
• Average life expectancy has increased
• Science and technology allow us to produce more
  with less workers
• There is more choice in food products than ever
  before and most products are available all year
  around in many places
• ...

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Modern agriculture A success story?

• People are still starving or suffer from
  malnutrition in some countries
• In the same countries and elsewhere a growing
  number of people die from eating too much and
  inadequate food (too much fat, too much sugar)
• Small farmers have problems competing
• Many people complain about the taste of fruit and
  vegetables
• Intensive agriculture creates problems with soils
  and water
• Intensive agriculture creates new food safety
  problems
• ...

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Could we do it differently?

• Good traditional cooking and gastronomy use high
  quality, natural ingredients and are healthy and
  tasty
• Good quality food is not necessarily expensive or
  difficult to prepare
• Competition could be based first on quality then
  on price

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Values and education

• Problems Irresponsible profit thinking and
  missing education
• Profit thinking can be a source of motivation
  it is missing values and responsibility that
  create problems
• We need responsible, well informed actors in the
  food supply chain from the producers to the
  consumers

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A good diet the key to health
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Trade in agricultural products in the ECE region
in 1949

• Countries use national quality standards to
  regulate trade within their borders
• Producers market
• Growing interest in international trade
• Existing national regulations become barriers to
  international trade

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Harmonization of national standards

• 1949 The Working Party on Agricultural Quality
  Standards takes up its work at UNECE in Geneva
• 1954 The Geneva Protocol and Standard Layout are
  adopted

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Aspects of quality Commercial quality

• No quality without safety
• Quality is MORE than safety.
• Commercial quality is a set of parameters
  describing internal and external characteristics
  of the produce, which are necessary to ensure
  transparency in trade and good eating quality.

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Commercial quality
Aspects of quality Expected properties of food
products
External Cleanliness Color Freshness Shape Prese
ntation Packing

• Internal
• Taste
• Maturity
• Nutrition

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Evaluation of commercial quality

• Subjective
• Sensorial caracteristics (taste, smell, texture,
  color)
• Objective
• Analytical or physical measurements

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UNECE Standard Layout

• Definition of produce
• Minimum requirements
• Maturity requirements (objective)
• Classification (Extra, class I, class II)
• Sizing provisions
• Tolerances (quality, size)
• Presentation (uniformity, packaging)
• Marking
• Annexes Definitions, Lists of varieties, Testing
  and Sampling procedures, Definitions

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Process of developing a UNECE standard
Specialized Section and Working Party agree to
create/amend a standard
Rapporteur prepares/amends text
Specialized Section discusses text in detail
Working Party discusses text in general
UNECE Recommendation trial period (1-3 years)
UNECE Standard
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Standards available
Dry and dried Fruit (17)
Fresh fruit and vegetables (49)
UNECE Agricultural Standards
Meat (4)
Potatoes (3)
Cut flowers (8)
Eggs and egg products (5)
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Standards for Fresh Fruit and Vegetables

• Annonas
• Apples
• Apricots
• Artichokes
• Asparagus
• Aubergines
• Avocados
• Beans
• Bilberries and Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts

Headed Cabbages Carrots Cauliflowers Chinese
Cabbages Cherries Citrus fruit Cucumbers Courgette
s Cultivated mushrooms Edible sweet
chestnuts Fennel Fresh figs
Garlic Horse-radish Kiwifruit Leeks Lettuce and
endives Mangoes Melons Onions Peaches and
Nectarines Pears Peas Pineapples Plums
Radishes Raspberries Ribbed celery Rhubarb Scorzon
era Spinach Strawberries Sweet peppers Table
grapes Tomatoes Watermelons Witloof chicory
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Current and future work in Fresh Fruit and
Vegetables

• Internal quality
• Maturity requirements
• Harmonized Produce coding
• Promoting trade in Fresh Fruit and Vegetables to
  contribute to a WHO strategy on Diet, Health and
  Physical Activity
• New standards for Shallots, Truffles and Ceps

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UNECE standards for dry and dried produce
Apples, dried Apricots, dried Cashew
kernels Dates, whole Figs, dried Grapes, dried
Hazelnuts, inshell Hazelnut kernels Pears,
dried
Pine nuts, decorticated peeled Pistachio kernels,
decorticated and decorticated peeled
Pistachio kernels, unshelled Prunes,
sweet Almonds, decorticated Sweet almonds,
unshelled Walnut kernels Walnuts, inshell
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Current and Future work inDried Produce

• Revision of standards for pistachios and almonds
• New standards for Dried Peaches, Pecan nuts,
  Macademia nuts, Dried Peppers, Dried Tomatoes,
  Peanuts

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Colour gauge for walnut kernels
Extra Class Uniformly light-coloured kernels
with practically no dark straw and/or lemon
yellow and with no dark brown.
Class I Kernels of a colour not darker than
light brown.
Class II Kernels of a colour not darker than
dark brown. Darker kernels may be marketed in
this class, provided the colour is indicated on
the package
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Implementation of standards 1
UNECE Standard
European Commission
Government
Codex Alimentarius
OECD Scheme
Commission Regulation
Codex Standard
Explanatory Brochure
National Standard
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Implementation of standards 2

• To create a quality control service
• To train actors in the supply chain in quality
  standards (production, wholesale, import/export)
• To implement control schedules
• To get international accreditation for national
  quality controls (in case of the EU this has been
  implemented for Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary,
  India, Israel, Morocco, Slovakia, South Africa
  and Switzerland)

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The situation today

• Consumers market - Consumers concerned about
  quality and safety
• Complex international supply chains
• Big retailers operate globally
• More countries enter the international markets
• Trade creates their own strict standards
• New technologies allow new types of quality
  testing
• Problems as mentioned in the introduction

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Future work

• Private and public standard setting and
  implementation bodies work together,
  complementing each other
• Definition of parameters and values for internal
  quality of produce and use new technologies for
  testing
• Encourage good quality and good farming practices
  by giving recognition to those who farm in a
  sustainable way
• Support the trade of organic produce by basing
  the definition of quality less on external
  appearance and more on internal parameters
• Codify standards to be used in electronic
  commerce
• Develop training packages to assist countries in
  the implementation of standards

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Why participate in standardization?

• To be integrated in the international trading
  system (to contribute and decide)
• To propose standards for local products for which
  international standards do not exist
• To network, exchange experiences, learn from
  others

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Products with future

• High quality products which can command a high
  price
• Promotion of brand awareness for local products
  (controlled origin labels)
• Organic produce

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UNECE standards and meeting information on the
internet

• Http//www.unece.org/trade/agr/welcome.htm